Trading in Acme Packet (Nasdaq: APKT) on the Nasdaq was temporarily halted this afternoon as the network equipment vendor reported that its fourth quarter earnings missed estimates. Investors promptly dumped the company's stock, dropping it 10 percent, within a few minutes of after-market trading.
Acme Packet shares closed at $30.89 Thursday. By 5:15 p.m., after the firm announced its estimates, its stock dropped to $27.30 in after-market trading.
Analysts had estimated that Acme Packet would bring in $85.2 million in Q4 and earn 28 cents a share. But the vendor earned just 26 cents per share and brought in $83 million--still an 18 percent year-over-year rise but not what was expected.
In January, Acme Packet released preliminary guidance that revised its estimates downward to between $84-86 million with EPS of 26 to 28 cents.
The equipment vendor competes with Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO), Huawei and Sonus (Nasdaq: SONS) in the network equipment segment.
For more:
- Barron's has this report
- see the earnings release
- and FierceEnterpriseCommunications' expanded coverage
Special Report: Wireline in the fourth quarter 2011
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