Tag Archives: csco

Fortinet Scraps To ‘Make Way’ Against Cisco, Check Point, Palo Alto

Cybersecurity firm Fortinet ( FTNT ) must shed its SMB-only reputation to tackle competitive challenges from rivals Check Point Software Technology ( CHKP ), Cisco Systems ( CSCO ) and Palo Alto Networks ( PANW ), a Dougherty analyst says. But the Sunnyvale, Calif., company has made headway with its previously tumbling salesforce and, late Tuesday, is expected to a deliver a “relatively solid” Q1 report, Dougherty analyst Catherine Trebnick wrote in a research report. For Q1, the consensus of 33 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters projects $273.4 million in sales and 9 cents earnings per share ex items, up a respective 28% and 12.5%. Three months ago, Fortinet guided to $270 million to $275 million and 8-9 cents. Fortinet’s billings model for $315 million to $322 million would be up 25% at the midpoint of guidance vs. the year-earlier period. Billings would drop 18% sequentially, though following a massive Q4 billings beat. Trebnick maintained her 38 price target and buy rating on Fortinet stock. Industry checks show Fortinet continues to dominate within the SMB market and is benefiting from the rip-and-replace of older firewall systems. “According to our sources, next-generation firewall refreshing amongst SMBs is occurring as many in this portion of the market have been slower to upgrade than large enterprises,” she wrote. Fortinet also appears to be winning in the small data center space, Trebnick wrote. But playing with bigger Check Point, Cisco and Palo Alto Networks will require shedding that “stigma as an SMB-only provider,” she wrote. “They have yet to make way against competitors in this space,” she wrote. Fortinet stock rose 2.1% to close at 30.27 in the  stock market today , somewhat outperforming the broader cybersecurity market.

Twitter Banned, But Hires China Exec To Boost Advertising ‘Success’

Twitter ( TWTR ) has hired a new exec to head up its China division as it looks to court local businesses for advertising, even though the government has banned the social media service from operating on China’s mainland since 2009. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced the appointment of Managing Director for China Kathy Chen in a tweet late Thursday. “A big welcome to Twitter, @KathyChen2016! She joins us as our MD for China!” Jack Dorsey’s post said. In response Chen tweeted, “We have many ways to connect China to the world.” San Francisco-based Twitter opened an office in Hong Kong a year ago to court Chinese companies wanting to advertise their products and services to its millions of users around the globe. The microblogging service has seen 340% growth in its number of Chinese advertisers since then, according to a report in the South China Morning Post quoting Shailesh Rao, Twitter vice president for Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Emerging Markets. Major Chinese advertisers for Twitter include brands such as Lenovo Group and Huawei Technologies, as well as China media outlets like the state-owned Xinhua news agency and People’s Daily, the report said. “Because of the success we’ve seen, we want to expand the investment we’re making” in the region, said Rao. Twitter China Chief Worked At Microsoft, Cisco Chen is a veteran information technology executive who previously worked at Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Cisco Systems ( CSCO ). She will take over from Peter Greenberger, the former director of emerging markets, Greater China and Russia. Greenberger is now the Asia-Pacific head of global brands and agencies at Twitter, according to the report. Twitter got a price-target cut Thursday from investment bank Morgan Stanley , citing falling user engagement and shrinking user growth at the social media site. Morgan Stanley also trimmed its projections for Twitter’s user growth. Twitter will end this year with 307.1 million global users, the investment bank now says, down from its original projection of 310.6 million. The amount of time that each user spends on the site is also declining, said Morgan Stanley, with those lower engagement levels holding back revenue growth. In Q4, Twitter’s U.S. mobile users averaged just 2.7 minutes daily on the site, said Nowak, compared to 40.5 mobile minutes for music streaming service Pandora Media ( P ), 30.3 minutes for Facebook ( FB ) and eight minutes for YouTube, owned by Alphabet ( GOOGL ) subsidiary Google. The figures are based on research from ComScore and Morgan Stanley. Twitter will capture a 1.4% share of net digital ad spending this year, up marginally from a 1.3% share in 2014, according to a March survey from eMarketer. Google ranks first, with a 30.9% share of net digital ad spending; Facebook ranks second, with a 12.0% share of the total market, which eMarketer estimated will reach $186.8 billion market in 2016. Twitter stock was up 1% in midday trading on the stock market today , near 18. Alphabet stock was up a fraction, while Facebook stock was down a fraction.

Palo Alto Networks Gouges Cisco, Check Point, Fortinet: Survey

Palo Alto Networks ( PANW ) gouged rivals Cisco Systems ( CSCO ) and Check Point Software Technologies ( CHKP ) during Q1, as Fortinet ( FTNT ) and Symantec ( SYMC ) demand toppled, according to a Piper Jaffray survey of 26 resellers and distributors. Meanwhile, cybersecurity vendors Imperva ( IMPV ) and FireEye ( FEYE ) improved on Q4 demand, and CyberArk Software ( CYBR ) and Proofpoint ( PFPT ) demand remained relatively stable. Cybersecurity stocks largely fell as of midday trading on the stock market today , with IBD’s 25-company Computer Software-Security industry group down nearly 1.5%. Proofpoint and Fortinet stocks led the plunge, both down more than 4% midday Tuesday. CyberArk stock was down more than 2%, and Palo Alto Networks stock was down more than 1%. Imperva was down more than 2.5%, and FireEye fell nearly 2%. Symantec and Check Point stocks bucked the trend, trading flat and up 1%, respectively. Check Point is losing to Palo Alto Networks, according to resellers surveyed by Piper Jaffray analyst Andrew Nowinski, but half of the resellers cited Cisco as the rival Palo Alto Networks beats out most frequently. “Cisco and Check Point have consistently been called out by resellers as the vendors most frequently losing to Palo Alto,” Nowinski wrote in a research report. In Q4 and Q3, Juniper Networks was also cited by 13% and 18% of resellers as losing to Palo Alto Networks. “However, this is the first quarter resellers cited Fortinet as competition to Palo Alto, suggesting Fortinet may be moving more upstream into the mid-market enterprise space,” Nowinski wrote. Only 35% of resellers sold more Palo Alto Networks products than they expected, Nowinski wrote, down from 56% in Q4. The largest distributors say Palo Alto Networks demand trends were unchanged, he added. Imperva jumped in Q1, as 20% of resellers were above plan vs. 8% in Q4. And FireEye demand improved to 31% below plan from 36% in Q4. CyberArk and Proofpoint were largely in line. But Fortinet and Symantec declined. In Q1, 31% of Fortinet resellers were below plan vs. 14% in Q4. Symantec fell to 50% below plan vs. 29% in the prior quarter.