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 Core Laboratories N.V. (CLB) fell 10% today after reporting second quarter earnings.
So what: Revenue was up just 2% in the quarter to $267.6 million and net income was up 7% to $63.7 million, or $1.42 per share. On an adjusted basis, earnings were $1.35 per share, a penny ahead of estimates, but the top line missed analysts' $279.0 million mark.
Now what: There weren't any real shocks in the report and management even said that earnings would be at the high end of its revised range and revenue would be at the middle of the new range. But the bigger concern long-term is that growth is stuck in neutral, which isn't good for a company priced at 25 times this year's earnings estimates. It's that price that is going to keep me out of the stock and even though I like Core Lab's business I'm wary of dropping exploration spending by big oil and dropping fossil fuel demand in developed markets because that means that their target market is no longer growing either.
