Why Zendesk Inc. Stock Slumped Today

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's happening:Shares of Zendesk Inc fell by as much as 12% Thursday, then partially recovered to trade down around 9% as of 1:00 p.m. despite solid fourth-quarter results from the cloud-based customer service software provider.

Why it's happening:Quarterly revenue increased 71% year over year to $38.5 million, helped by an expanded enterprise customer base, continued strength in start-ups and small- and medium-sized businesses, and the launch of its "Embeddables" native environment integration solution in the fourth quarter. That translated to an adjusted operating loss of $7.7 million, and a net loss of $8.0 million, or $0.11 per diluted share. Analysts, on average, were expecting a wider net loss of $0.12 per share on lower sales of $36.7 million.

What's more, Zendesk expects current-quarter revenue in the range of $39 million to $41 million, with an adjusted operating loss of $9.5 million to $10.5 million. Analysts were modeling an adjusted net loss of $0.13 per share on lower sales of $38.7 million. Finally, Zendesk sees revenue for the full year 2015 growing 45% to 50% to a range of $184 million to $190 million, which should result in an adjusted operating loss of $34 million to $36 million. Once again, analysts weren't as optimistic, calling for revenue of just $182.7 million to result in a loss of $0.43 per share.

So why the stock drop? For one, note Zendesk shares climbed nearly 9% in the week leading up to the report, so today's pullback appears to be simply giving back some of those short-term gains given the small beat. We should also keep in mind Zendesk is no stranger to volatility since holding its IPO last May. In the end, I think long-term investors shouldn't fret these swings as Zendesk continues its march toward sustained profitability.

The article Why Zendesk Inc. Stock Slumped Today originally appeared on Fool.com.

Steve Symington has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Zendesk. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.