Why ValueVision Shares Tumbled

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 ValueVision Media were losing value today, falling as much as 28% after reporting quarterly earnings.

So what: The home-shopping channel operator said sales increased 10% to $149 million, ahead of estimates, but it missed on the bottom line with a per-share loss of $0.02 on estimates of a penny profit. Still, that was an improvement over an $0.08 per-share loss in the quarter a year ago. In the release, CEO Keith Stuart noted progress in rebranding ShopHQ as well as its fifth straight quarter of positive EBITDA.

Now what: Despite the increase in sales, gross margin fell 70 basis points to 37.5%, indicating that ValueVision is having difficulty turning additional sales into profits. As a company in the midst of a turnaround, shares have been extremely volatile over the past year, jumping as much as 300% before crashing today. That exaggerated movement, a result of widely differing assessments of the company's prospects, probably explains today's drop more than anything else, as a $0.03 earnings is disappointing but not particularly alarming. Still, the quarterly loss is a sign that significant profits are likely further away than investors had hoped.

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The article Why ValueVision Shares Tumbled originally appeared on Fool.com.

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