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Why Shares of Impinj Popped Today

What happened

Shares of Impinj (NASDAQ: PI) jumped on Tuesday, recovering some of the losses it suffered last week. There was no news driving the gains. Impinj stock has tumbled 80% from its 52-week high, and it's suffered multiple steep drops in the past few months. Today's move may be nothing more than a beaten-down stock rebounding after a very rough period. The stock was up 8.5% at 3:50 PM.

So what

Impinj's revenue growth began to slow down last year, and it fully reversed direction in the fourth quarter. Impinj reported disastrous preliminary fourth-quarter results earlier this month, sending the stock off a cliff. The company then came up short of those pessimistic numbers last week when it reported its full results.

PI Chart
PI Chart

PI data by YCharts

Fourth-quarter revenue declined by 20% year over year. The company blamed a one-time product exchange with a partner for missing its preliminary numbers, and partner inventory draw-downs for the year-over-year decline. The company expects endpoint IC consumption to grow in 2018, but sales will lag that growth as partners work through excess inventory.

A rising stock chart.
A rising stock chart.

Image source: Getty Images.

Now what

Today's bounce doesn't change anything. There's a cloud over Impinj's growth story, and it won't go away until the company works through these issues and returns to growth. The market once valued Impinj at more than eight times trailing-12-month sales, a lofty valuation that baked in an awful lot of growth. The price-to-sales ratio has now fallen below 2n, reflecting less optimistic assumptions.

More From The Motley Fool

Timothy Green has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Impinj. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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