Dassault Systèmes reports solid Q2 but shares fall anyway

It’s tough being a public company. Dassault Systèmes announced solid second quarter
results today: revenue up, non-GAAP earnings per share slightly ahead of expectations,
solid and solid-ish contributions from all brands and all geographies… and still its share price
is falling on global markets. DS gave no bad news; the problem appears to be that the news
was not good enough. In describing its objectives for the third quarter, DS adjusted its prior
guidance to account for the divestiture of a sales subsidiary (lowering revenue and costs) and
the Engineous acquisition (adding revenue but also costs). In all, objectives for the year went
from total revenue of EU 1325 million – EU 1340 million to of EU 1320 million – EU 1330
million. That’s a change of about 0.5% in overall revenue taking the stock price down 2.5%
on the NASDAQ (at 11AM ET). Crazy.

In related news, DS will be delisting from the NASDAQ in October – in part, according to
CEO Bernard Charles, because of the small number of shares traded on that exchanges and
the growing interest among investors of trading in their own, native markets. The global
dominance of the US-based NASDAQ may be at an end. Charles was quick to say that
compliance with Sarbanes Oxley was not a deciding factor, although CFO Thibault de
Tersant was able to identify $1 million in costs specifically related to compliance with
NASDAQ listing requirements.

[Disclosure: I do not own shares in any PLM companies.