Why Cyan Shares Are Seeing Red Today

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 Cyan have collapsed by 16% today after the recently public company filed its first public quarterly report and issued disappointing earnings guidance for the upcoming quarter.

So what: Cyan reporded record quarterly revenue of $31.7 million, which is 37% higher year over year, and a net loss of $0.33 per share, much narrower than the first quarter's net loss of $3.61 per share or the year-ago quarter's $0.59 loss. However, on an adjusted basis, Cyan's net loss was a relatively more palatable $0.24 per share. Analysts had expected a net loss of $0.31 per share for the quarter, so this was an outperformance.

Looking ahead, Cyan now anticipates revenue in the $36 million to $38 million range, with a net loss of between $0.14 and $0.17 per share. That range fell below Wall Street's expectations of a $0.11 loss per share, and this appears to be the primary driver of today's drop.

Now what: Cyan has now fallen past its IPO-day closing price and is at all-time lows for its roughly three-month history. It's very early in this company's life, but its recent product releases show promising potential -- software-defined networking is a major threat to existing networking products, but the market is still forming up. It may be some time before Cyan reaches profitability, which should give you plenty of time to dig deeper, should you so choose.

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The article Why Cyan Shares Are Seeing Red Today originally appeared on Fool.com.

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