Why Textura Corp. Shares Jumped

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 Textura Corp. jumped more than 10% during Thursday's intraday trading after the company posted better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter 2014 results.

So what: Quarterly revenue increased 77%, to $12 million, which translated to an adjusted net loss of $0.19 per share. Analysts were expecting a $0.19 per-share loss on revenue of $11.85 million. 

Keep this in mind: Textura's acquisition of LATISTA closed in early December -- without it, Textura would have turned in revenue of $11.8 million, and an adjusted net loss of $0.18 per share.

Textura also reaffirmed revenue guidance for the full fiscal year 2014 for sales in the range of $57.5 to $60.5 million, or an increase of 62% to 70% over fiscal 2013. In addition, Textura introduced 2014 earnings guidance, projecting an adjusted loss per share in the range of $0.62 to $0.55.

The midpoint of both ranges actually falls short of analysts' numbers, which call for a 2014 net loss of $0.52 per share on sales of $59.4 million. However, the discrepancy again lies with the LATISTA acquisition, which will only add around $1.5 to $2 million in 2014 revenue, while increasing Textura's 2014 losses by $0.23 to $0.24 per share.

Now what: As long as Textura is still bleeding money with no end in sight, I have to admit it's hard for me to get excited about the stock. What's more, Textura is also facing allegations of fraud from Citron Research, which most notably called into question the credibility of Textura's management, given a troubling lack of disclosure leading up to its 2013 IPO.

But regardless of whether Citron's allegations are correct, I'd still prefer to see more tangible progress from Textura toward achieving sustained long-term profitability. Until then, I think investors would be wise to keep it on their watchlists.