What's happening: Shares of Sierra Wireless (SWIR) were down 11.5% as of 1:20 p.m. Friday after the Internet of Things company announced solid second-quarter results, but once again followed with lighter-than-expected guidance.
Quarterly revenue rose 17% year over year to $158 million, and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization nearly doubled to $13.1 million. That translated to adjusted earnings of $8.6 million, or $0.26 per diluted share, up from $2.6 million, or $0.08 per diluted share in the year-ago period.
Analysts, on average, were expecting adjusted earnings of only $0.23 per share on revenue of $155.2 million. But keep in mind Sierra Wireless' results also came in above its own expectations (similar to its past two reports), as guidance for the quarter called for revenue of $153 million to $156 million, and earnings per share of $0.21 to $0.24.
For the current quarter, however, Sierra Wireless anticipates revenue of $157 million to $160 million, and diluted earnings per share of $0.23 to $0.27. Wall Street was expecting Q3 revenue of $163.7 million, and earnings of $0.30 per share.
Why it's happening: This time, explained Sierra Wireless CEO Jason Cohenour, Sierra Wireless' "component supply situation also improved faster than anticipated." That's a great thing keeping in mind that last quarter, an RF component shortage negatively affected both revenue and costs of goods sold as Sierra Wireless had to redesign products using those components with more expensive replacements. When the situation improved ahead of schedule in Q2, however, it enabled Sierra Wireless to meet more customer demand than expected, pulling some orders forward that were originally anticipated for the third quarter -- hence the light Q3 guidance.
As I pointed out in my earnings recap last night, there was plenty more for investors to celebrate in Sierra's Q2 results. Organic growth came in at 13.7%, near the high end of Sierra Wireless' 10% to 15% target range. And the core OEM Solutions business saw revenue increase 18.5% year over year to $138.2 million, thanks to multiple design wins across a broad base of market segments. Sierra Wireless also delivered on its promise for sequential growth in the previously underperforming Enterprise Solutions segment, where revenue increased 13.8% from last quarter and 7.6% year over year to $19.8 million. Management also insisted Enterprise Solutions should continue to grow for the remainder of this year, thanks in part to contributions from its acquisitions of Wireless Maingate and Accel Networks.
In the end, it seems the market is purely punishing Sierra Wireless for its (unsurprisingly) conservative guidance.
