UPDATED 18:30 EDT / FEBRUARY 06 2025

SECURITY

Cyber roundup: Fortinet, Cloudflare and Qualys report strong earnings and revenue growth

Cloud and cybersecurity companies Fortinet Inc., Cloudflare Inc. and Qualys Inc. all reported earnings and revenue beats for their latest quarters as demand for cybersecurity services continues apace.

Fortinet

For its fiscal fourth quarter that ended on Dec. 31, Fortinet reported adjusted earnings per share of 74 cents, up from 51 cents in the same quarter of 2023, on revenue of $1.66 billion, up 17.3% year-over-year. Both figures were ahead of the 61 cents per share and revenue of $1.59 billion expected by analysts. Its stock rose almost 7% in after-hours trading.

Fortinet saw service revenue of $1.09 billion in the quarter, up 17.6% year-over-year and product revenue of $574 million, up 17.6%. Billings in the quarter rose 7%, to $2 billion. Unified Secure Access Service Edge annual recurring revenue jumped 28%, to $1.12 billion, and security operations annual recurring revenue shot up 32%, to $422.4 million.

“We continue to execute our strategy of investing in the high-growth Unified SASE and Security Operations markets while strengthening our position in Secure Networking,” founder and Chief Executive Ken Xie said in the company’s earnings release. “Our customers are increasingly recognizing the benefits of a single-vendor approach to SASE and we expect to emerge as a leader in this space, being the only company to natively develop all SASE functions within a unified operating system, FortiOS, which seamlessly integrates networking and security capabilities.”

For its full fiscal year, Fortinet reported adjusted earnings per share of $2.37, up from $1.63 in 2023, on revenue of 5.65 billion, up 12% year-over-year.

For its fiscal 2025 first quarter, Fortinet expects adjusted earnings per share of 52 to 54 cents on revenue of $1.5 billion to $1.56 billion. Earnings per share were in line with the 53 cents expected by analysts, while the revenue outlook at the midpoint was in line with the $1.53 billion expected.

Cloudflare

Meanwhile, Cloudflare reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share of 19 cents, up from 15 cents in the same quarter of the previous year, on revenue of $459.9 million, up 27% year-over-year. Both were ahead of the 18 cents per share and revenue of $452.04 million forecast by analysts, and its shares jumped almost 12% after-hours as a result.

Cloudflare saw net cash flow from operations in the quarter of $127.3 million, up from $85.4 million in the same quarter of 2023 and the company ended the quarter with $1.86 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term securities on hand.

For the full year, Cloudflare reported adjusted earnings per share of 75 cents, up from 49 cents in 2023, on revenue of $1.67 billion, up 29% year-over-year.

“We had a very strong end of 2024. We saw record growth in our largest customers, those that spend more than $1 million with Cloudflare per year – closing the year with 173,” co-founder and CEO Matthew Prince said in the company’s earnings release. “We added 55 of those customers in 2024, and more than half of these new additions came in during the fourth quarter alone.”

For its 2025 fiscal first quarter, Cloudflare expects adjusted earnings per share of 16 cents on revenue of $468 million to $469 million. Both figures were short of the 18 cents per share and revenue of $474.1 million expected by analysts but apparently not enough to worry investors.

Qualys

Qualys reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.60, up from $1.40 in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023, on revenue of $159.2 million, up 10% year-over-year. Analysts had expected $1.37 per share on revenue of $156.2 million.

For its full year, Qualys reported adjusted earnings per share of $6.13, up from $5.27 the year prior, on revenue of $607.6 million, up 10% year-over-year.

“Our results this quarter demonstrate the rapid pace of innovation at Qualys and reflect the growing success of newer product initiatives, including Cybersecurity Asset Management, Patch Management and TotalCloud,” CEO Sumedh Thakar said in the company’s earnings release. “With our natively integrated platform and frictionless approach to quantifying, prioritizing, articulating and remediating cyber risk, we believe we’ll continue to perform well against our competitors, extend our leadership and provide a runway for long-term sustainable growth.”

For its fiscal 2025 first quarter, Qualys expects adjusted earnings per share of $1.40 to $1.50 on revenue of $155.5 million to $158.5 million. The revenue guidance was in line with analysts’ expectations, but the earnings per share guidance at the midpoint was 6.4% below the figure expected. That may explain why shares fell almost 6% after-hours.

Image: SiliconANGLE/Ideogram

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