Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of ChinaCache International Holdings, Ltd. (CCIH) plunged more than 17% Tuesday after the Chinese Internet content and application delivery services company reported disappointing quarterly earnings.
So what: Quarterly revenue rose 31.6% year-over-year to $45 million, which translated to an adjusted net loss of $2.6 million, or $0.11 per share, compared to an adjusted net income of $1.33 million during the same period last year. Meanwhile, analysts were looking for an adjusted net loss of just $0.02 per share on sales of $44.8 million.
Now what: Management blamed the increased loss both on the accrual of a roughly $2.19 million bad debt provision stemming from a contract renewal "disagreement" with China Mobile, as well as a little over half a million dollars in stock-based compensation from its newly issued restricted share and stock operation grants in Q3.
Specifically, ChinaCache CFO Jing An says, the disagreement resulted in a contract renegotiation during the renewal, which the much smaller company understandably "felt [...] was in our mutual best interest to agree to the settlement in order to proceed with our relationship."
Even so, ChinaCache insists the charge is a nonrecurring item which shouldn't impact its results going forward, so today's pullback could very well represent a buying opportunity for patient long-term investors looking to capitalize on China's Internet growth.
