Sourcefire's Teething Troubles

"The earnings were reflective of them working out their open-source model to the expectations of the market," says Alex Fletcher, lead industry analyst at Entiva Group, an industry group that specializes in open-source software technologies.

"In the long term, as long as the technology continues to have a vibrant community around it, we will see the company's performance reflect strong figures," says Fletcher.

Sourcefire itself has said that the slow quarter is due to a number of delays the company is facing in the processing of awarded procurement transactions, especially in the federal sector of its business.

That could be an indication that the company's fundamentals are right, but an inability to manage expectations and understand the investor mindset might have let it down.

The company, which released its first-quarter results on a day that the stock markets were closed, offered no details.

That served as a warning to investors who dislike companies trying to sneak bad news in, say experts.

"They weren't trying to be upfront and candid about what happened," says Mike Rothman, an analyst with independent consulting firm Security Incite. "And if a company doesn't offer details, investors are forced to draw their own conclusions."

Sourcefire declined requests from TheStreet.com to elaborate on the results earlier Monday and finally released a brief statement after market close.