Why Dice Holdings Shares Spiked

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 Dice Holdings (NYS: DHX) , an online career websites company focused primarily on the technology and finance sector, spiked as much as 15% after reporting better-than-expected third-quarter results.

So what: For the quarter, Dice reported a slight 3% increase in revenue to $48 million (excluding the acquisition of Slashdot and SourceForge) and a profit of $0.17. These tepid results, however, were enough to easily surpass the Street's expectations for a profit of $0.12 on revenue of $46.97 million. In addition, Dice's fourth-quarter and full-year revenue outlook of $51.4 million and $194 million, respectively, are both higher than the current consensus estimates. Its technology-focused Dice.com portal, which is responsible for roughly 70% of all revenue, demonstrated modest 7% growth, while its financial portal, eFinancialCareers, witnessed a 20% decline in revenue.

Now what: I do like Dice's initiative to make acquisitions when unemployment figures remain high, as it could set the company up for success when the economy regains its footing. However, I also have a really hard time thinking of positive things to say about staffing and recruitment companies with unemployment hovering around 8%. At 15 times forward earnings, Dice isn't particularly expensive, it's just not an intriguing enough value to excite me, either.

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

The article Why Dice Holdings Shares Spiked 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.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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