Why Babcock & Wilcox's Shares Dropped

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 energy service company Babcock & Wilcox (NYS: BWC) fell 11% today, after reporting earnings.

So what: Third quarter revenue rose 14%, to $807.6 million, but net income fell 11%, to $40.5 million, or $0.37 per share on an adjusted basis. Analysts expected revenue to be $830.3 million, and earnings of $0.44 per share.

Now what: Short term, this may have been an earnings miss but, long term, management is still confident in the company. It initiated a $0.08 quarterly dividend, and also authorized a $250 million share repurchase program. I'm not jumping on shares because of the declining profit but, at 11 times forward earnings, shares aren't trading at an unreasonable price.

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The article Why Babcock & Wilcox's Shares Dropped originally appeared on Fool.com.

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