Investors savage Vista after it misses earnings target

The S&P/NZX 50 Index declined 46.10 points, or 0.4 percent, to 10,580.07. Within the index, 24 stocks fell, 23 rose, and three were unchanged. Turnover was $139.2 million, of which Vista accounted for $20.8 million.

Vista slump to a seven-month low after scaling back its projections for revenue growth to 10-12 percent and reporting a 23 percent slide in first-half profit. The cinema software analytics firm has lifted revenue by more than 20 percent in each of the past five years.

The stock led the market lower, down 29 percent at $3.85 on a volume of 5.2 million shares, more than 15 times its 90-day average of 336,000. It was the most traded stock.

"People start extrapolating the growth and they're prepared to pay in advance, but today's reaction is kind of an Australian-type reaction. They're fairly savage on companies that don't hit their targets and that's what we've seen today with Vista," said David Price, a broker at Forsyth Barr.