Why Cvent 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 Cvent , a maker of cloud-based enterprise event management software, plunged by more than 16% during intra-day trading Tuesday after the company reported its first quarterly earnings since going public in August.

So what: For the second quarter, revenue increased 36% year over year, to $26.9 million, which translated to a GAAP net loss of $0.07 per share, compared to GAAP net income of $0.01 per share in the same quarter last year. On an adjusted basis, however, Cvent achieved net income per diluted share of $0.04, compared to adjusted net income of $0.09 per share in the second quarter of 2012.

For reference, those numbers were largely in-line with analysts' estimates for adjusted net income of $0.04 per share on sales of $26.77 million.

Now what: Today's drop occurred despite in-line results and the company's ensuing in-line Q3 and full-year fiscal 2013 guidance, so it's obvious the market was hoping for a significant beat in Cvent's earnings debut. When that didn't happen, and remembering the stock had risen 30% going into the report since its first-day close on August 9, investors decided to take some of those quick gains off the table.

Cvent, for its part, says the decrease in profitability was due to four factors, including the negative impact of companies acquired last year, investments in R&D, the cost of preparing to be a public company, and incremental sales and marketing developments. That's fair enough, especially considering I'd be worried if any cloud-based technology company wasn't spending money on R&D and marketing to maintain its cutting edge.

Going forward, if Cvent can manage to achieve sustained profitability over the long term, today's plunge could prove a great buying opportunity for patient shareholders down the road.

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