Reading between the lines...
After reviewing the balance sheet, it does indeed appear that they may have been willing to compromise this quarter's results and then front-load Q2. For example, on the balance sheet, deferred revenues increased by $9,000,000 since last quarter to $36.5 million.
They did buy back 1,250,000 shares in the March Quarter.
Although this isn't kosher, they may have wanted this quarter to be the one with the least earnings during their transition so that they can buy back the remaining 1.74M shares of their 5M share buyback program at decent prices.
Carreker made favorable comments about balance sheet improvement and that they are making progress in executing their transition. If you're a day trader, this isn't going to pop up tomorrow like an internet stock, but it's a great turnaround play and a value play at this point in an overheated market.
Final point: In January, analysts already downgraded ASPT to neutral/hold, etc, which is essentially the bottom of the barrel for a respectable company.
I wouldn't expect to see any downgrades based on this report (in other words, I can't see analysts downgrading further).
We'll see how analysts respond to the conference call.
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