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 Geospace Technologies (GEOS -4.28%) dropped as much as 26% early in trading today after the seismic-equipment maker reported earnings. Shares settled at a near-15% loss late in trading.
So what: Fiscal second quarter revenue fell 10% to $68.6 million and net income fell 36% to $10.8 million, or $0.82 per share. Revenue was better than expected, but earnings fell well short of the $1.03 per share that analysts expected.
Now what: Weak demand across the board hurt Geospace and it doesn't look like there's an imminent recovery coming. With that said, shares are still trading at just 8.7 times expected fiscal 2014 earnings, which offers value for investors even if earnings are disappointing. Over the long term I think shares will recover, but the process could be slow given weak demand in Geospace's markets.
