Not that anyone cares, but I sold my entire position the day after the earnings call.
I am not nearly as adept at financial analysis as many who post here, so the questionable numbers was not my primary motivation. For me there were two deciding factors:
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I never had a strong conviction for PVTL in the first place. I don’t know what they claimed their TAM might be, but from my perspective it was always limited to very large enterprises with very large programmer staffs. I just didn’t see how they could continue to grow after they got the slam dunks out of the way oh yeah, they’ll still grow but at a much slower pace. Tinker lambasted me for this analysis, and I have a great deal of respect for his analysis prowess, so I reconsidered and bought a smallish position - but my doubts remained.
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The CEO’s response to questions during the most recent ER pushed me over the edge. He wasn’t just evasive, he was extremely verbose in his inability to be forthcoming. This is not the hallmark of what I consider great, or even good leadership. If you work for this guy how can ever take direction from him? How can you ever decipher what he’s actually saying?
I consider management, intangible and without direct measure as it might be, one of most important criteria when it comes to making an investment. In my opinion, Pivotal is a ship without a rudder floating aimlessly in uncharted waters.