Shares in cybersecurity firm Fortinet Inc. stayed flat late today despite the company reporting fourth-quarter financial results that comfortably beat Wall Street’s expectations.

The company, which sells tools that simplify operations for organizations with a large number of breach prevention systems, reported a profit before certain cost such as stock compensation of 76 cents per share on revenue of $614.4 million, up 21% from a year ago.

That easily beat Wall Street’s forecast of earnings of 70 cents per share on revenue of $602.57 million.

Fortinet said its product revenue for the quarter came to $238.8 million, up 19% from the same period a year before. Service revenue was $375.6 million, up 23%. Meanwhile, billings came to $802.3 million, up 24%.

Fortinet also reported a full-year profit of $2.47 per share on $2.16 billion total revenue, up 20% from a year ago.

Fortinet founder and Chief Executive Officer Ken Xie (pictured) said this quarter’s growth was driven by new security and networking functionality added to its products.

“We are focused on continuing to gain market share by investing in network security, the buildout of our Security Fabric platform, and innovations in the areas of 5G, IoT, edge and cloud security,” Xie said.

Fortinet’s numbers were solid across the board, but the market’s reaction in after-hours trading suggests that investors were hoping for more of the same in the next three-month period. Alas, that’s unlikely to happen, as Fortinet’s guidance for the next quarter came in lower than expectations.

The company said it’s expecting a profit of 51 cents per share on revenue of around $560 million in its next quarter. That was lower than Wall Street’s forecast of a 55-cent profit on revenue of $556.5 million.

Forescout misses targets

Another cybersecurity firm, Forescout Technologies Inc., also reported earnings today, although that was largely overshadowed by the fact it’s being acquired for $1.9 billion by private equity firms Advent International and Crosspoint Capital Partners.

The sale is expected to close within the second quarter which means today’s earnings report is likely to be Forescout’s last. If so, it’s probably just as well as the company had a quarter it would probably rather forget.

Forescout reported a third quarter loss before certain costs such as stock compensation of 9 cents per share on revenue of $91.3 million. Analysts had Forescout down for a loss of just 7 cents per share on revenue of $95.3 million.

“We experienced extended sales cycles across several of our customers that pushed out deals and which did not become apparent until we entered the final days of the quarter,” Forescout President and CEO Michael DeCesare said in a statement to investors. “We do not believe that any of these deals have been lost to competitors.”

Photo: SiliconANGLE