UPDATED 20:15 EDT / FEBRUARY 05 2018

INFRA

Cybersecurity firm Fortinet’s earnings beat expectations

Cybersecurity firm Fortinet Inc. gave itself a big pat on the back Monday after posting fourth-quarter earnings results that comfortably beat Wall Street’s forecast.

The company, based in Sunnyvale, California, reported a net loss of $29 million for the quarter, or 17 cents per share, on $416.7 million in revenue. Earnings after certain costs such as stock competition came in at 32 cents per share.

Those results exceeded Wall Street’s forecast earnings of 29 cents per share on $408.6 million in revenue, per a survey of 14 analysts by Zacks Investment Research.

“Fortinet has strong market momentum and is well positioned for robust future growth,” Ken Xie, the company’s founder, chairman and chief executive officer, said in prepared remarks.

The company’s share price edged up by just 0.4 percent. They fell more than 2 percent in regular trading, but that was on a day when the overall market plunged more than 4 percent in the worst sell-off since at least 2011.

Fortinet said its net loss in the quarter was the result of a onetime tax expense of $63 million, or 36 cents per share, as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that came into law in December.

The company also posted its full-year financial results, chalking up a net profit of $31.4 million, or 18 cents per share, on revenue of $1.49 billion.

Fortinet also took the opportunity to announce a new chief financial officer. The company said it’s appointing Keith Jensen to the role on an interim basis as of Feb. 16, replacing incumbent Drew Del Matto, who is said to be leaving Fortinet for another opportunity. Jensen had served as the company’s chief accounting officer since May 2014.

“Keith has been instrumental in driving business scale and increased levels of productivity through the transformation of our financial, accounting and ERP systems and processes,” Xie said. The company will conduct a search for a permanent CFO, however.

Fortinet also issued guidance for the next quarter and full financial year. For the current quarter, it’s expecting earnings per share of 21 cents to 22 cents and revenue of $387 million to $393 million. That’s more or less in line with Wall Street’s forecast of $390.7 million in revenue, according to a survey by Zacks. For the full year, Fortinet said it expects earnings of between $1.30 and $1.32 per share on revenue of $1.7 billion to $1.72 billion.

Image: Fortinet/Facebook

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