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 Albany Molecular Research (AMRI), a development and manufacturing services company contracted out by pharmaceutical companies, dipped as much as 14% after being downgraded before the opening bell by research firm Sterne Agee.
So what: Following what has practically been a 100% run-up from intraday low to intraday high over the past six weeks, Sterne Agee slapped Albany Molecular Research with an underperform rating, down from neutral, and kept its price target firm at $13 citing that the recent run-up in its shares doesn't accurately reflect its underlying assets.
Now what: As a reminder, analyst actions often have a very short-term effect on a company's share price and rarely are they going to play into our long-term investing thesis. With that being said, I do happen to agree with Sterne Agee that perhaps Albany Molecular had come a bit too far, too fast. Its latest quarterly results were impressive from a profit perspective with the company topping Wall Street's EPS estimates by $0.05 as net income grew by 37% from the year-ago quarter. But total revenue actually fell by 0.1% to $67.1 million. This big profit difference compared to Q4 last year was simply a matter of having a smaller impairment charge this year, otherwise it was another par-for-the-course quarter. Until we see more definitive top-line growth from Albany Molecular, despite its impressive EPS beats, I'd stick to the sidelines.
