What: SolarWinds, (NYSE: SWI), a leading provider of powerful IT management software, has taken a beating over the last twenty-four hours. The company is trading 24% lower to roughly $35 in early Friday trading after reporting second quarter results Thursday and being downgraded a day later by Deutsche Bank.
So what: SolarWinds' revenue for the second quarter checked in at $119.1 million, a 17% increase compared to last year's second quarter. However, revenue fell short of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters which had estimates of $123 million.
While SolarWinds failed to meet analyst expectations on its top-line revenues, the company managed to record $0.52 non-GAAP diluted earnings per share during the second quarter which was a jump from $0.41 per share during last year's second quarter and was higher than analyst estimates of $0.46.
It wasn't a great quarter overall for the company but the driving force behind SolarWinds' 24% dive in stock price is Deutsche Bank's downgrade of the stock from buy to hold. Deutsche Bank analyst Karl Keirstead also slashed SolarWinds' price target from $60 to $45.
"This is the second weak qtr in a row and we have too little visibility into the cause of the miss and the recovery path," Keirstead stated in a note to investors.
Now what: With SolarWinds trading at a much cheaper price than in recent history, some investors believe it trades at a significant discount to its overall growth potential.
"As we look ahead to the second half of 2015, we feel confident in our ability to deliver strong growth given the size of our market opportunity," said SolarWinds CEO Kevin Thompson, in a statement.
If the company can rebound from a couple of weak quarters and continue to drive higher revenue from its MSP, cloud businesses and license sales, SolarWinds stock price could rebound. However, I'm with Deutsche Bank on this one and it's too risky for me to consider in my portfolio.
