Share prices of space tourism stock Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) tumbled as much as 16% in the days following its fourth-quarter earnings release last week. The reason wasn't obvious on the surface.

In its report, Virgin Galactic management noted that its Q4 losses were smaller than analysts had forecast -- only $0.26 per share instead of $0.30 per share. Management also admitted that sales underperformed expectations, coming in at $2.8 million instead of the expected $3 million.

Such a report would seem to set up a good news/bad news kind of quarter for this pioneering space stock ... except for one thing.

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Source Fool.com