CyberArk Yanked On Imperva ‘Quota’ Blunder, Lagging FireEye Sales
Cybersecurity stocks toppled broadly Friday despite a CyberArk Software ( CYBR ) blowout Q1, losing ground on disappointing results from FireEye ( FEYE ) and Imperva ( IMPV ) that included, respectively, a sudden CEO shift and ousted EMEA management on lagging sales. IBD’s 26-company Computer Software-Security industry group, which already ranks a lowly No. 178 of 197 groups tracked, was down 5.5% in morning trading on the stock market today , touching a more than two-month low. Imperva and FireEye stocks led the deluge, down a respective 26% and 18%, near 33.50 and 13. CyberArk stock was down 2%, near 39.50. In fact, the only stocks on the rise in the sector were tiny Mimecast ( MIME ) and Qualys ( QLYS ), which was up just a fraction. Viewfinity ‘Meaningfully’ Helps CyberArk Late Thursday, CyberArk reported 43% year-over-year sales growth to $46.9 million and 23 cents earnings per share, up 44% vs. the year-earlier quarter. Both metrics topped the consensus of 17 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters for $43.4 million and 16 cents. Current-quarter guidance for $47.5 million to $48.5 million in sales and 18-20 cents EPS ex items beat Wall Street’s forecast for $47.5 million and 18 cents at the midpoints. On a year-over-year basis, sales would be up 32%, and EPS minus items would be flat. License sales drove CyberArk’s Q1, up 38% to $27.5 million (59% of total revenue), leading 41% growth in the maintenance and professional services segment. Q1 marked acquisition Viewfinity’s first “meaningful contribution,” Piper Jaffray analyst Andrew Nowinski wrote in a research report. Nowinski reiterated an overweight rating and 55 price target on CyberArk stock, noting “broad adoption” across all segments. “They are seeing increased activity with midsize organizations, including universities, credit unions and law firms, which supports the belief that firms of all sizes need this layer of security,” he wrote. Government growth included six-figure deals in all three regions. FireEye Sees ‘Inflection Point’ Dougherty analyst Catharine Trebnick called FireEye’s Q1 an “inflection point” that saw subscriptions replace products as FireEye’s leading segment — up 71% vs. down 16% on a year-over-year basis. The unexpected transition caused FireEye’s Q1 sales to miss but billings to fly. And CEO David DeWalt stepped down to executive board chairman, succeeded by Kevin Mandia, Mandiant founder. FireEye acquired Mandiant in 2014, and Mandia has held several positions at FireEye since. Late Thursday, FireEye reported $168 million in sales and $186 million in billings minus items, up a respective 34% and 23%. A 47-cent loss per-share ex items shrunk by a penny vs. last year’s loss. Billings topped FireEye’s $163 million-$183 million model, and losses beat the consensus of 35 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters for 50 cents. But sales missed the projection for $171.8 million, and on Friday, at least four analysts cut their price targets on FireEye stock. Of the 28 deals worth more than $1 million, 80% included multiple products/subscriptions, and 50% had three or more, Trebnick wrote in a report. More than half of the seven-figure deals included FireEye-as-a-Service — or cloud — products. Trebnick is neutral on FireEye stock. For the current quarter, FireEye guided to $178 million to $185 million in sales, up 23% at the midpoint, and a 38-cent to 40-cent per-share loss minus items, missing the consensus for $192.8 million and a 36-cent loss. Billings views for $200 million to $215 million would be up 16%. Imperva’s ‘Doubly Whammy’ Hits Q1 Imperva, on the other hand, experienced a “double whammy” during Q1 as Web-application firewall and Europe/Middle East/Asia sales stalled, prompting the firm to shift channel priorities and remove its EMEA head of sales. Summit Research analyst Srini Nandury reiterated a buy rating but trimmed his price target on Imperva stock to 50 from 70. Imperva trimmed Q2 guidance but inched 2016 views up — the latter of which Nandury sees as an impossibility. “We worry that the year will be back-end-loaded with no margin of error,” he wrote in a report. For Q1, Imperva reported $59.8 million in sales, up 34%, and a 25-cent per-share loss minus items vs. a 26-cent loss in the year-earlier quarter. Sales met Wall Street expectations, while losses were better by 3 cents. Imperva’s Q2 view for $65.5 million to $66.5 million in sales would be up 23%, but it missed the consensus of 22 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters for $70.2 million. The company’s outlook for a 2-cent to 4-cent loss per share ex items edged views for a 4-cent loss. “Guidance was lowered mainly due to sales execution challenges in EMEA and U.S.,” Nandury wrote in a report. “Some sales force reps were only selling Database Security product so that they can close out their quota for the quarter, while ignoring lower-priced WAF products.” But Nandury sees the issues as fixable. Gartner, IDC and Forrester industry trackers rate Imperva’s products highly, he wrote. Amazon.com ‘s ( AMZN ) Amazon Web Services cloud business can’t touch Imperva’s Database Security, he said. “We do not see evidence that enterprises are going to rely on cloud providers such as AWS to provide security to their data,” he wrote.