Why Nortek's Shares Popped

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 building products maker Nortek (NAS: NTK) saw its shares jump 13% today after reporting earnings.

So what: Sales grew 7% from last year to $522.8 million and gross margin increased nearly 2 points to 27.9%. But the company still posted a net loss of $1.2 million, or $0.08 per share.

Now what: The commercial HVAC segment drove most of the increase in sales by growing 39% from a year ago. The improvement is good, but I'm still concerned that the company isn't posting a quarterly profit and I'm leery of a big recovery in building products. I'll pass on shares today, but if Nortek can continue to turn around operations in future quarters, it will be worth another look.

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At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributor Travis Hoium does not have a position in any company mentioned. You can follow Travis on Twitter at @FlushDrawFool, check out his personal stock holdings or follow his CAPS picks at TMFFlushDraw.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 Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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