Riverbed, When Bad Gets Even Worse… Turnaround Must Wait (RVBD)

Riverbed Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: RVBD) was supposed to be on the path of recovery, at least that was the case before yesterday’s earnings and guidance.  The communications equipment provider reported a 53% profit gain which actually managed to beat earnings estimates on in-line revenue expectations. Where the big problems arose was where guidance for the quarter ahead remains challenging.  Riverbed sees earnings at $0.19 to $0.20 on sales of $183 million to $187 million, under the consensus of $0.25 per share on over $197 million in sales.

Riverbed was up 1.2% at $29.92 on Thursday before earnings and its 52-week range is $18.33 to $4.70.  Investors had been expected an accelerated recovery after things started to fall apart last summer.  All you have to do is look at the reaction getting worse and worse.

Riverbed shares were down almost 13% in the after-hours session to $26.00 per share in active trading when we first covered this one last night.  Now shares are down 22% at $22.31.  Volume is almost five-times normal now that 15.6 million shares have traded hands.