By Senad Karaahmetovic
Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) shares are up almost 12% in pre-market Wednesday after the cybersecurity company delivered solid Q4 results and offered encouraging guidance.
Fortinet reported a Q4 EPS of $0.44 on revenue of $1.28 billion, which compares to the average analyst estimate for earnings of $0.39 on revenue of $1.29B. Billings soared 32% year-over-year to $1.72B, beating the consensus of $1.69B.
For this quarter, Fortinet said it sees EPS between $0.27 and $0.29, in line with the consensus, while a revenue forecast of $1.18-1.22B came in ahead of expectations of $1.183B. Billings are seen at between $1.42B and $1.47B.
For 2023, EPS is seen at $1.40 (up or down 1c) on revenue of $5.4B (up or down $30 million), which is better than the analyst consensus for earnings of $1.39 on revenue of $5.35B.
"Our market share gains are being driven by Fortinet's integrated and single platform approach to cybersecurity combined with FortiASIC technology, which lowers the management costs and the total cost of ownership for organizations. Given our cost-for-performance advantage, the convergence of security and networking, and the consolidation of products and vendors, we expect to continue our solid growth trajectory," said Ken Xie, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
Stifel analysts hiked the price target by $8 to $72 per share, citing a "better-than-feared FY23 guide."
"We continue to believe Fortinet remains well-positioned to be a net-share gainer given its leading/growing network security-focused cybersecurity-platform, and has a number of drivers to sustain at least 20%+ top-line growth along with the Rule-of-40 in coming-years," the analysts wrote in a client note.
Bank of America analysts noted "mixed" results as trends are getting tougher.
"4Q results were not as weak as expected, management tone was relatively positive and there was strong demand for SD-WAN and OT security, sending the stock higher after hours. However, we also note that revenues and billings slightly missed street consensus by