Why Accuray Shares Jumped

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 Accuray , a designer of medical radiation systems for the treatment of cancer, jumped as much as 14% after reporting its fourth-quarter earnings results.

So what: For the quarter, Accuray reported a 15.5% increase in sales to $84.9 million as its loss narrowed to slightly to an adjusted $0.20 per share. Both figures slid past Wall Street's estimates, which had called for revenue of $81 million and a loss of $0.21 per share. Net new product orders rose by 32% with backlog increasing by 7% to $317 million. Looking ahead, Accuray anticipates delivering revenue in fiscal 2014 of $325 million to $345 million as compared to the current consensus estimate of $349.9 million.

Now what: Today's move is a little bit confusing -- despite the quarterly beat -- given that Accuray's fiscal 2014 revenue forecast came in below expectations. In addition, Accuray also announced that it's seeking a new manufacturing strategy for the InCise multileaf collimator option on the CyberKnife M6 System, which signals to me that there's a possibility of product delays over the very near term. While I really like Accuray's technology, I still can't overlook a long history of losses. For now I'd suggest adding Accuray to your watchlist, but would stick to the sidelines until this company gets a lot closer to profitability.

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The article Why Accuray Shares Jumped originally appeared on Fool.com.

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