Ahead of the Bell: E2open

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of E2open Inc. tumbled 19 percent before Friday's opening bell after the cloud-computing software company issued a weak outlook for the year.

The company did post a second-quarter adjusted loss that was smaller than Wall Street had expected, and while revenue dropped 21 percent, that too beat most projections.

E2open expects an adjusted loss of between 53 and 57 cents per share this year on $70.9 million to $71.9 million in revenue. That's much worse than the loss of 34 cents per share and revenue of $77.5 million that analysts had been looking for. The company expects an adjusted loss of between 18 and 21 cents per share and revenue of between $17.4 million and $17.9 million. Analysts polled by FactSet expected a loss of 4 cents per share and $21 million in revenue.

Despite the weak outlook, Benchmark analyst Mark Schappel backed his "Buy" rating for the stock, saying that the company's second-quarter results and bookings show that its core business growth remains intact.

Schappel attributed the disappointing outlook to a rapid shift in consulting revenue. He recommended that investors take advantage of any drop in stock price.

"The company remains in a solid position to harness the emerging new category of next-generation collaborative supply chain solutions that allows trading partners to procure, manufacture and distribute products in a complex supply chain environment," Schappel wrote .

In premarket trading, company shares fell $3.95 to $16.47.