Shares in Wind River Systems Inc plummeted nearly 35% Friday on fears that the maker of real-time operating systems wouldn’t please Wall Street with its earnings for the fourth quarter. The shares dropped $17.3125 to close at $32.1875, chopping roughly $463m off the company’s market value, which now stands at $859m. Volume for the day was a staggering 8.47 million shares, more than 30 times the average daily volume of 258,000. It appears the trouble began when an analyst at Lehman Brothers who had been talking with company executives expressed concern simply over Wind River’s ability to exceed expectations – something investors have come to expect from the company after 20 consecutive quarters of doing so. Wind River is expected to post earnings of $0.29 per share for the quarter, according to analysts surveyed by First Call. It seems that analyst Michael Stanek’s comments were misinterpreted after he said that the company should post results in line with expectations, with an upside surprise unlikely. In fact, Stanek even maintained his buy rating on the stock. No other explanation for the drastic move was readily available and the company could not be reached for comment.
