Why Cray, Inc. Shares Skyrocketed

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 Cray, soared 39% Friday after the supercomputing specialist turned in solid fourth-quarter results and encouraging forward guidance.

So what: Quarterly sales rose nearly 63% year over year, to $307.4 million, which translated to adjusted net income of $1.48 per diluted share. By contrast, analysts were only expecting earnings of $1.39 per share on sales of $300.56 million.

Going forward, and with the caveat that "a wide range of results remains possible," Cray anticipates full-year 2014 revenue of $600 million. Once again, the majority of that number will be heavily skewed toward the back half of the year, with about $50 million expected in Q1, and roughly $300 million in Q4. Analysts, on average, were looking for 2014 sales of $596.25 million.

Cray also expects to be profitable on both a GAAP and non-GAAP basis in 2014.

Now what: Shares currently trade at a lofty 48 times this year's expected earnings -- not horrendously expensive given Cray's growth; but at the same time it doesn't make me want to jump in, especially after today's massive pop. As it stands, I think investors would do well to let the dust settle before making any decisions about buying Cray in the near term.

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The article Why Cray, Inc. Shares Skyrocketed originally appeared on Fool.com.

Steve Symington has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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