Why Dolby Laboratories, Inc. Stock Plunged Today

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What's happening?Shares of Dolby Laboratories fell as much as 11.4% during Thursday's trading after the company released mixed fiscal first quarter 2015 results.

Why it's happeningQuarterly revenue climbed just 1% year-over-year, to $234.2 million, which translated to adjusted net income of $58.5 million, or $0.56 per diluted share. Analysts, on average, were looking for lower earnings of $0.38 per share on higher sales of $239.5 million.

Dolby also provided current quarter guidance for sales in the range of $260 million to $270 million, and earnings per share of $0.60 to $0.66. Once again, while the mid-point of that revenue range falls below analysts' models for sales of $267.7 million, Dolby's expected earnings range is well above estimates for $0.53 per share.

Dolby CFO Lewis Chew blamed their disappointing revenue on lower-than-projected sales of $17.6 million from Dolby's small Products and Services segment. That notably included light sales of products from Doremi Labs, the acquisition of which Dolby completed during the quarter. Even so, Dolby's core Licensing business continued to perform well, with revenue growing around 5% over the same year-ago period to $216.6 million. For that, investors can primarily thank continued strong performance of Broadcast licensing, which grew 20% over last year amid a continued migration to digital broadcast signals in emerging markets. Dolby management also outlined significant progress toward broader adoption for its new Dolby Vision technology.

Finally -- and perhaps most importantly -- Dolby reiterated guidance for full fiscal year 2015 revenue in the range of $970 million to $1 billion, which is in line with Wall Street's expectations and indicates Dolby management doesn't expect its top-line weakness to persist much longer. If that turns out to be the case, today's drop may ultimately prove short-lived.

The article Why Dolby Laboratories, Inc. Stock Plunged Today originally appeared on Fool.com.

Steve Symington has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Dolby Laboratories. 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.