Investors punish Concurrent despite positive earnings

A delay in video-on-demand [VOD] deployments led investors to hammer Concurrent Computer Corp.’s stock in early morning Nasdaq trading, despite the fact that the cable vendor announced a fourth consecutive year of VOD growth. Concurrent’s stock dropped almost immediately by $1.13 to $3.24.

Even with the VOD delay, Concurrent said it expected five to six new VOD market deployments in the range of $13 million to $14 million in the first quarter 2003 and predicted it would earn between 1 and 2 cents per share in that period.

Concurrent’s total fiscal 2002 revenue was $89.4 million, an increase of 22.7% over fiscal 2001 revenue of $72.8 million. The company’s earnings from operations were $3.7 million compared to a loss of $5.6 million in 2001, with earnings from operations of $4.3 million in 2002 compared to a $700,000 loss in 2001.

Net earnings in 2002 were $4.4 million or 7 cents per share compared to net losses of $6.2 million or 11 cents a share in 2001, with fourth quarter earnings of 8 cents compared with a loss of 8 cents one year ago.

-- Jim Barthold, senior editor