Why Lexmark Shares Are Printing Losses

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 printing specialist Lexmark International (NYS: LXK) are black and blue, down as much as 16%, after the company reported disappointing second-quarter earnings results.

So what: For the quarter, Lexmark reported a profit of $0.89 as revenue fell 11.7% to $918.6 million. Both figures missed Wall Street's estimates, which called for $941.2 million in sales and a profit of $0.93. Worse yet, Lexmark lowered its third-quarter and full-year forecast on continued demand weakness in managed print services in Europe and a weaker euro. It now expects revenue to contract 8% to 10% this year as opposed to its original forecast of just a 2% to 4% retracement in sales and expects EPS of $3.70 to $3.90, down from its original forecast of $4.70 to $4.90.

Now what: Today's news is absolutely awful, yet I am incredibly intrigued by Lexmark as a value play. The company is facing a serious challenge from 3-D printing solution companies Stratasys (NAS: SSYS) and 3-D Systems (NYS: DDD) , which have seen orders explode, while Lexmark's printing orders are being delayed or canceled. Despite this, Lexmark's technologies aren't likely to disappear overnight and through steady cost controls it could easily continue to pay out what is now a yield north of 7%! If you're worried about the sustainability of that payout... don't be. Even at the low end of Lexmark's EPS estimates for this year, its payout ratio would be just 32%. At just over four times this years' earnings I'm definitely intrigued.

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

The article Why Lexmark Shares Are Printing Losses originally appeared on Fool.com.

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.Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of 3-D Systems and Stratasys. 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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