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 GSV Capital (NASDAQ: GSVC), a business development company fund specialist that focuses on emerging-growth companies, sank as much as 11% after reporting its fourth-quarter results after the closing bell last night.
So what: For the quarter, GSV Capital reported a net investment loss of $0.05 per share and a net realized loss of $0.61 per share. GSV did experience hefty unrealized appreciation of $67.9 million thanks to gains in holdings like Twitter and Facebook, but its loss was a stunner considering that Wall Street's few estimates had anticipated a profit of $1.40 per share. The company also announced that it had applied to change its status and become a regulated investment company so as to reduce its tax burden and pay out at least 90% of its taxable income to shareholders as a dividend.
Now what: While today's EPS miss was nothing short of atrocious, there are a lot of positives coming out of this report. Primarily, that GSV Capital is seeing huge unrealized gains in its assets that should reflect positively on its EPS down the road, and also that it's likely shareholders will receive a handsome quarterly dividend if its RIC conversion is approved. As long as we remain in a bull market, GSV's growth-heavy holdings should outperform, leaving it plenty of room to possibly head higher.
