Sykes Enterprises Shares Plunged: 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 outsourcing company Skyes Enterprises (NAS: SYKE) are down 16% today after the company reported worse-than-expected fourth-quarter results and issued fiscal 2012 guidance.

So what: Sykes' results simply went from ugly to uglier! For the quarter, the company earned an adjusted profit of $0.27 on revenue of $276.2 million which compares to the $0.28 and $291.7 million expected by analysts. An ongoing corporate restructuring, unfavorable foreign currency translation, and higher tax rates are hurting its earning potential. Sykes also recently decided to exit its business in South Africa and Ireland, sell its business in Spain, and restructure its operations in the Netherlands and United States.

Now what: The pain isn't quite done yet -- I did promise you fiscal 2012 guidance. Sykes is forecasting full-year EPS of $1.10 to $1.20, on an adjusted basis, on sales of $1.1 billion to $1.11 billion. This compares to Wall Street's expectations for a profit of $1.47 on revenue of $1.24 billion. In short, it was an all-around terrible report for Sykes, and it doesn't look like the company's going to remedy its troubles anytime soon. While not expensive by any means, I'm passing on Sykes until it has better business clarity.

Craving more input? Start by adding Sykes Enterprises to your free and personalized watchlist so you can keep up on the latest news with the company.

At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributor Sean Williams has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @TMFUltraLong. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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