Navisite Shares Plunge 28 Percent

Shares of IT infrastructure provider Navisite plunged by $2.45 a share Monday to close at $6.15, a drop of 28.5 percent, after the company’s quarterly earnings disappointed investors. Prior to the market’s opening, Navisite (NAVI) posted a loss of 8 cents a share for its first quarter of fiscal 2008, while analysts had been expecting a break-even quarter, according to Reuters Estimates. Navisite also said it expects revenue of $39 million to $40 million for the second quarter, shy of analyst expectations of $41.85 million.

The decline in Navisite follows a similar setback for managed hosting provider Savvis (SVVS), whose shares have dropped 24.5 percent over the last three sessions after the company lowered its guidance to reflect additional spending on new data center space. While the decline has yet to spread to the shares of other major data center builders, it appears that investors are interpreting even minor disappointments on earnings and revenue guidance as an opportunity to take profits.