Why Support.com, Inc. Shares Plunged

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 Support.com, fell more than 16% during Wednesday's intraday trading after the company announced preliminary fourth-quarter results and initial first-quarter 2014 guidance.

So what: Support.com now expects non-GAAP Q4 revenue in the range of $24.5 million to $25 million, which narrows its previous guidance of $24 million to $26 million. Meanwhile, analysts were modeling Q4 revenue of $25 million.

In addition, Support.com says non-GAAP income from continuing operations are now expected to be in the range of $0.08 per share and $0.09 per share, an increase of its previous guidance of $0.06 to $0.08 per share. Finally, at the end of Q4 the company had cash and equivalents remaining of $72 million, a $3.5 million sequential improvement over Q3.

However, Support.com also stated first-quarter 2014 revenue should be in the range of $16 million to $18 million, or well below expectations for sales of $21.87 million. This, in turn, should translate to non-GAAP income from continuing operations in the range of minus $0.04 per share to $0.00 per share.

Now what: CEO Josh Pickus weighed in, "We can now estimate the effects of program changes at Comcast on our business and want to update shareholders without delay."

That's fair enough, but I can't blame investors for bidding shares down today. Remember, shares of Support.com sank in October after Pickus noted that while changes in Comcast's signature support program shouldn't have a great effect revenue from the cable provider, they would almost certainly result in "considerably lower margins" going forward.

And though he elaborated today with optimism for a "set of new opportunities with Comcast and other industry leaders" in various other industries, I just can't get excited about Support.com stock until those catalysts materialize.

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The article Why Support.com, Inc. Shares Plunged originally appeared on Fool.com.

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