TIBCO Software Shares Dropped: What You Need to Know

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 TIBCO Software (NAS: TIBX) sank 13% on Wednesday after business software bellwether Oracle (NAS: ORCL) posted lackluster quarterly results.

So what: Investors are obviously taking Oracle's earnings miss as a clear sign that TIBCO's own soon-to-be released third-quarter results -- after market close -- will be just as disappointing. In fact, the entire space is getting hit on the whiff, with enterprise software stocks like IBM (NYS: IBM) , SAP (NYS: SAP) , and salesforce.com (NYS: CRM) all down more than 4% today.

Now what: I'd look into this pullback as a possible buying opportunity. While it seems likely that TIBCO's quarterly guidance will fall short of expectations, you've got to think that the stock's now 25% plunge in December has done a good job in discounting much of the risk. When you add TIBCO's decent margins and rock-solid balance sheet, the downside doesn't look too scary.

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At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributor Brian Pacampara owns no position in any of the companies mentioned. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of TIBCO and Salesforce. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended shorting Salesforce. The Fool owns shares of IBM. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days.We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Fool's disclosure policy always gets a perfect score.

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