Source: Qlik.
What: Shares of Qlik Technologies (QLIK +0.00%) fell as much as 13.2% in Friday's trading session. The maker of data analysis and visualization tools reported third-quarter results on Thursday night, falling short of Wall Street's revenue estimates and setting up a weak earnings target for the next quarter.
So what: For the third quarter, analysts were expecting adjusted earnings of roughly $0.02 per share on sales of $143 million or so. Qlik hit the earnings consensus on the nose, up from adjusted net income of $0.01 per share in the year-ago quarter. But sales rose just 8% to land at $141.2 million.
Looking ahead, the midpoint of Qlik's fourth-quarter earnings guidance range now sits at $208.5 million. Earnings should stop at approximately $0.38 per share. The sales target is roughly in line with Wall Street's projections, but the earnings guidance weighted a little light.
Now what: In the published press materials, Qlik CEO Lars Björk kept a stiff upper lip:
We are confident in our differentiated position within our large market opportunity, and we expect to achieve our full year goals of reaccelerating revenue growth and driving margin expansion.--Lars Björk, Qlik CEO
Björk's story changed ever so slightly when giving color commentary on Qlik's earnings call. "While we are disappointed to finish at the lower end of our revenue guidance range, our profit performance during the quarter was strong," the CEO said.
Later in the call, he also admitted to worrying about the business impact of struggling economies across Asia, which may be delaying a significant amount of potential Qlik orders. "The deals are there," Björk pondered. "It's really just about sort of timing as to when we think we'll be able to close them."
Qlik's most significant rivals hardly moved on this report. Tableau Software (DATA +0.00%) saw its shares trading essentially sideways on Friday afternoon while Splunk (SPLK +0.00%) shares headed 2% lower.
Sure, both data analysis stocks missed out on a generally positive market day, but the reaction largely amounted to investors shrugging off Qlik's market data until these companies report their own results.
Tableau's next report is less than two weeks away while Splunk investors will have to wait about a month.
