Forescout Technologies Inc. was left reeling today after investors dumped its shares in the wake of guidance for its second quarter that fell well short of expectations.

The “internet of things”-focused cybersecurity firm actually did quite well in the quarter just gone. It reported a first-quarter loss before certain costs such as stock compensation of 41 cents per share on revenue of $75.6 million. Analysts were expecting a loss of 44 cents per share on revenue of $74.1 million.

But whatever optimism those numbers might have sparked quickly crumbled when it came to Forescout’s guidance for the next quarter, which left a lot to be desired. The company said it’s expecting a second-quarter loss of 46 to 48 cents per share on revenue of $75.3 million to $78.3 million. That was well short of Wall Street’s estimate of a 25 cent loss on revenue of $82.7 million.

Forescout’s full-year guidance wasn’t much better. For the entirety of 2019, the company said it’s expecting a loss of 34 to 41 cents a share on revenue of $365.3 million to $375.3 million. Analysts had Forescout down for a 38-cent loss on revenue of $369.6 million.

Still, Michael DeCesare (pictured), chief executive officer of Forescout, tried to put a brave face on things, insisting the company had a “strong start” to the year and that it was “pleased with the growing diversification” of its customer base.

“The market opportunity ahead of us in device visibility and control is substantial, driven by the explosion of connected devices, the convergence of IT, IoT and OT network environments, as well as the increasing willingness of CIOs to automate their IT and security solutions,” DeCesare said.

But that wasn’t enough to satisfy Forescout’s investors. The bleak outlook sent many of them running for the exit, causing Forescout’s shares to fall more than 13% in after-hours trading.

ForeScout offers a cybersecurity service that allows enterprises to see all sorts of devices the instant they connect to the network. The company’s platform integrates with leading network, security, mobility and information technology management products to allow users to control devices when they are connected to the network and orchestrate information sharing and operation among various different types of security tools to accelerate incident response.

DeCesare was recently interviewed by theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s mobile livestreaming studio. He spoke in depth about how his company was using artificial intelligence and machine learning to protect enterprises from so-called “phishing” attacks, which involve spoofing URLs and email addresses while engineering a message to look and sound as if it’s from a person the recipient knows:

Photo: SiliconANGLE