Luminar Technologies(NASDAQ: LAZR) stock crashed in Wednesday's trading. The company's share price closed out the daily session down 37.4%, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Luminar published second-quarter results after the market closed yesterday, and delivered sales and earnings for the period that missed expectations. In addition to the Q2 misses, the company issued guidance that worried the market. With today's big sell-off, the light-detecting-and-ranging (lidar) specialist's stock is now down roughly 74% across this year's trading.

Luminar delivers another quarterly-earnings miss

Luminar reported a non-GAAP (adjusted) loss per share of $$0.18 in the quarter, coming in worse than the average Wall Street target by $0.01 per share. Revenue for the period came in at $16.45 million, still up 1.5% year over year but short of the average-analyst target by roughly $3.9 million. Luminar has racked up a string of earnings disappointments, and its forward guidance suggests that underperformance is poised to continue in the near term.

Luminar's growth engine appears to be stalling

For Q3, Luminar expects sales to be in line with or modestly higher than those in Q2. Given that the company's sales performance last quarter already came in significantly below expectations on Wall Street, it's not surprising investors aren't happy with that guidance.

Luminar's business has been slow to scale, and the company is posting disappointing margins. With indications that its production ramp is being pushed further out, investors aren't seeing much opportunity for improved profits in the near term.

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Keith Noonan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Why Luminar Stock Crashed Today was originally published by The Motley Fool