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 Lionbridge Technologies (NASDAQ: LIOX) are down 11% today despite releasing what appears to be reasonable first-quarter earnings before the closing bell.
So what: Lionbridge's first-quarter revenue was 6% higher year over year at $120.2 million, and its adjusted earnings reached $0.08 per share. Wall Street analysts had been looking for $121.6 million in revenue, but only $0.05 in EPS. Going forward, Lionbridge now expects to generate between $129 million and $133 million in revenue, which beats Wall Street's $130.4 million consensus at its midpoint, and its full-year guidance for 5% to 10% in revenue growth works out to a range of roughly $513.7 million to $538.1 million, which at its midpoint ($525.9 million) also bests the $521.2 million analyst consensus.
Now what: The only real reason this writer can find to explain the severity of today's crash can be found in a pre-opening-bell Briefing release claiming that Lionbridge had missed EPS estimates by $0.02. However, this was based on a mistaken use of GAAP EPS (which had in fact grown from a $0.05 loss per share in the year-ago quarter to a profit of $0.03 per share) instead of adjusted EPS in the write-up. Briefing has since corrected its report.
A narrow revenue miss is not, on its own, reasonable justification for a double-digit drop, especially since Lionbridge's forward guidance is better than what Wall Street had wanted. A lack of EPS guidance may have spooked investors, but Lionbridge has had a history of producing solid earnings for nearly two years now, so this drop might be a good time for you to dig deeper to see if it could be the right time to buy in.