Tag Archives: ftnt

Palo Alto Networks’ Q3 Seen Hitting 2014 Trough Levels Amid Slowdown

Palo Alto Networks ( PANW ) is expected late Thursday to report fiscal Q3 sales and earnings that decelerated to mid-2014 trough levels, with further sales-growth slowing expected in fiscal Q4, according to the consensus of 43 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. In early afternoon trading on the stock market today , Palo Alto Networks stock was up a fraction, near 145. The rise underperformed IBD’s 26-company Computer Software-Security industry group, which jumped 1.6%. A weak April-quarter earnings report by the company could stoke further questions of a broad cybersecurity slowdown . This month, investment bank Piper Jaffray noted slowing demand for Palo Alto Networks products, citing its own checks of the sales channel. Palo Alto’s results come after soft Q2 and fiscal 2016 guidance from security vendors  Check Point Software Technology ( CHKP ) and FireEye ( FEYE ). Imperva ( IMPV ) and Proofpoint ( PFPT ) likewise missed with their Q2 guidance, and Barracuda Networks ‘ ( CUDA ) and Fortinet ‘s ( FTNT ) full-year views lagged. For fiscal Q3, Palo Alto Networks is expected to report $339.5 million in sales and 42 cents earnings per share minus items, up a respective 45% and 83% vs. the year-earlier quarter. A company faces the prospect of lower percentage growth when it gets bigger, but Q3 sales would decelerate for the fourth consecutive quarter and would dip below 50% growth for the first time since June 2014. For the current fiscal Q4, the analyst consensus calls for 37% year-over-year growth, lagging the 53% growth average Palo Alto has enjoyed the past three years. Q3 EPS, as modeled, would break a five-quarter streak of triple-digit growth and touch a seven-quarter low. But analysts model 79% EPS ex items growth in fiscal Q4, which would top the 55% growth average for Palo Alto’s past three July quarters.

Fortinet Crushes Q1 Model; Faces Palo Alto, Cisco With Platform Bet

Fortinet ( FTNT ) topped Wall Street’s Q1 views late Tuesday and threw down a platform gauntlet with a “Security Fabric” that could challenge Palo Alto Networks ( PANW ) and Cisco Systems ( CSCO ), a Dougherty analyst said Wednesday. In afternoon trading on the stock market today , Fortinet stock was up 7.5%, at a four-month high above 33. Shares of fellow cybersecurity firm Barracuda Networks ( CUDA ), meanwhile, were up 17%, at a three-month high near 18, after that company late Tuesday posted a fiscal Q4 and fiscal 2016 beat. But Summit Research analyst Srini Nandury says Barracuda has “too many moving parts” and won’t survive a mass small- and medium-business exodus to cloud products from the likes of Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Amazon.com ’s ( AMZN ) Amazon Web Services. Fortinet Tops On Service Revenue For Q1 ended March 31, Fortinet reported $284.6 million in sales and 12 cents earnings per share minus items, up a respective 34% and 50%, vs. the year-earlier quarter, and topping the consensus for $273.4 million and 9 cents. Billings flew 30% to $330.5 million, above Fortinet’s earlier guidance for $315 million to $322 million. Dougherty analyst Catharine Trebnick credited Fortinet’s sales beat to $160 million in service sales vs. expectations for $150.3 million. Billings from FortiSandbox, which offers advanced threat protection and virtual software, jumped 270% year over year. Bundling also helped drive outperformance, Trebnick wrote in a research report. Fortinet is pushing its “Security Fabric,” which attempts to holistically combine Fortinet’s products under “a single pane of glass.” “We believe this strategy could help incrementally improve margins and would generate more sticky revenue for the company from their SaaS components,” she wrote. “It remains to be seen whether they can outperform competitors such as Palo Alto Networks and Cisco Systems.” Trebnick boosted her price target on Fortinet stock to 40 from 38 and reiterated a buy rating. For Q2, Fortinet guided to sales of $301 million to $306 million, up 27% at the midpoint, and EPS ex items of 14 cents. Billings guidance for $365 million to $370 million would be up 24% at the midpoint. The consensus of 33 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters called for $300.8 million in sales and 15 cents EPS ex items. Barracuda SMB Customers ‘Hijacked’ Barracuda topped Wall Street’s billings and sales views for the first time in four quarters, William Blair analyst Jonathan Ho noted in a report. He reiterated his market perform rating on Barracuda stock, but questioned whether the company could survive the cloud transition. “The Barracuda story looks to have fundamentally changed, with the core value proposition of delivering IT solutions at low cost and complexity to SMB customers being hijacked by public cloud providers,” he wrote. For fiscal Q4 ended Feb. 29, Barracuda reported $83.7 million in sales and 15 cents EPS minus items, up a respective 16% and 114% vs. the year-earlier period, beating the consensus for $80.9 million and 8 cents. Billings were flat at $95.8 million. The company wrapped fiscal 2016 with $320.2 million in sales, 42 cents EPS minus items and $377.5 million in billings, up 15%, 50% and 4%, respectively. Sales and EPS flew past the consensus model of 16 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters for $317.3 million and 35 cents. But fiscal Q1 is expected to decelerate markedly on a year-over-year basis. For the current quarter, Barracuda guided to $83 million to $85 million in sales, 10-11 cents EPS minus items and $94 million to $96 million in billings, up 8%, 2% and 1%, respectively, at the midpoints.

CyberArk Pulls Symantec, Intel, FireEye Onto Platform Bandwagon

CyberArk Software ( CYBR ) launched an alliance Wednesday, tapping FireEye ( FEYE ), Intel ( INTC ) and Symantec ( SYMC ) for what it called tighter best-of-breed integration, which offers an alternative to security platforms from such companies as Palo Alto Networks ( PANW ), Check Point Software Technology ( CHKP ) and Fortinet ( FTNT ). In total, the C3 Alliance has 15 members across cybersecurity, enterprise software and infrastructure. They include  Qualys ( QLYS ), Rapid7 ( RPD ), Varonis Systems ( VRNS ) and Belden ( BDC )-owned Tripwire. CyberArk tech will be integrated into the partners’ software. Megabreaches like that of retailer Target ( TGT ) in 2014 have highlighted the need to secure credentialed accounts, says Adam Bosnian, CyberArk’s executive vice president of global business development. Privileged account protection is at CyberArk’s core. “We saw more and more organizations becoming aware of being exposed by these power accounts,” Bosnian told IBD. The C3 Alliance aims to “solve these challenges and leverage the valuable data that comes off that security.” CyberArk’s technology will be integrated in a variety of ways, Bosnian said. C3 member Tenable Network Security, a continuous monitoring and vulnerability management company, requires credentialed access to perform deep-dive hunting for vulnerabilities, Tenable strategist Cris Thomas told IBD. A hacker needs only one credential to wreak havoc. “When a hacker attacks an organization, they compromise one specific point,” Thomas said. “To move, they need a Zero Day (vulnerability). … The easiest way to do it is to steal credentials. Those are the prized goals of an attacker.” Integrating technology from CyberArk and Tenable lets Tenable’s 20,000 customers store credentialed passwords using CyberArk software, he said. It also gums up any holes existing between the vendors’ software, making intrusion that much more difficult. Bosnian doesn’t foresee “one-off, snowflake” integrations. He sees CyberArk tech, in conjunction with partners’ software, providing a platform-like infrastructure, constantly evolving as new integrations are added to the mix. Customers are still leery of the platform, which might be “best-of-breed in one piece of the platform but not in another,” Bosnian said. The C3 Alliance, however, is comprised of best-of-breed tech woven into one unified solution that shares data bidirectionally, he says. C3 is not a monolithic alliance, he said. “These partners are improving how they use privileged accounts in their environment,” he said. “The real magic is when there are use cases built on top of that to solve real problems. That’s what we’re trying to do.” CyberArk stock was up 2% in midday trading in the stock market today .