Orbital Sciences Earnings: Here’s Why Shares are Down Now

Orbital Sciences Corp. (NYSE:ORB) delivered a profit and beat Wall Street’s expectations, BUT came up short on beating the revenue expectation. The revenue miss is a negative sign to shareholders seeking high growth out of the company. Shares are down 1.09%.

Orbital Sciences Corp. Earnings Cheat Sheet

Results: Adjusted Earnings Per Share decreased 12.12% to $0.29 in the quarter versus EPS of $0.29 in the year-earlier quarter.

Revenue: Rose 5.71% to $354.6 million from the year-earlier quarter.

Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: Orbital Sciences Corp. reported adjusted EPS income of $0.29 per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean analyst estimate of $0.22. It missed the average revenue estimate of $359.73 million.

Quoting Management: Mr. David W. Thompson, Orbital`s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, “Orbital`s fourth quarter and full year 2012 financial results reflected continued growth in revenues and operating income, both of which set new annual records for the company. Operational activity was also robust last year, with 23 rocket launches, five satellite deployments and 20 other system deliveries being carried out in 2012.”

Key Stats (on next page)…