Tag Archives: cybr

CyberArk Slated For ‘Solid’ Q1; FireEye Sales ‘Remain Suppressed’

CyberArk Software ‘s ( CYBR ) first-quarter improvement on health care and higher education sales wasn’t reflected at FireEye ( FEYE ), where product sales “remain suppressed” amid the transition to subscription offerings, an analyst said Thursday. Both are set to report first-quarter earnings late Thursday. Mid-morning on the stock market today , FireEye and CyberArk stocks were each down a fraction, and Dougherty analyst Catharine Trebnick expects solid and in-line reports, respectively, from the duo. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters project CyberArk to report $43.4 million in sales and 16 cents a share in adjusted earnings, up 32% and flat, respectively, vs. the year-earlier quarter. Demand for CyberArk’s bread and butter, its privileged account management, remains robust, Trebnick wrote in a research report. Trebnick rates CyberArk stock a buy and has a 50 price target on the shares. Several health care bake-offs put CyberArk at the top of vendors’ lists. In one deployment alone, CyberArk’s enterprise vault solutions are being used in 20,000 servers. Higher education, too, is paying dividends, Trebnick wrote. “A number of chief information security officers in this area have selected CyberArk’s solutions, as high turnover in their IT departments (due to staff members often being graduating seniors) drives the need for credential management,” she wrote. For FireEye, however, the first quarter represents another stalled period, as the company transitions to subscriptions — FireEye-as-a-Service and Mandiant incident response — from product sales. FireEye’s network and endpoint product sales have’t improved, Trebnick wrote. “With the HX (endpoint), we did not pick up significant traction, despite recent changes to include exploit detection,” she wrote. “According to one source, the installed base looks to be slow (in) adopting the next generation of code, and many are still running old versions.” But FireEye’s channel is driving increased combination sales, pairing FaaS and Mandiant. The consensus of 35 analysts models $171.8 million in sales, up 37% year over year, and a 50-cent per-share loss minus items widening from a 48-cent loss in the year-earlier quarter. FireEye previously guided to $163 million-$183 million in Q1 billings, which would be up 14% at the midpoint of guidance. Trebnick has a neutral rating on FireEye stock.

CyberArk Pulls Symantec, Intel, FireEye Onto Platform Bandwagon

CyberArk Software ( CYBR ) launched an alliance Wednesday, tapping FireEye ( FEYE ), Intel ( INTC ) and Symantec ( SYMC ) for what it called tighter best-of-breed integration, which offers an alternative to security platforms from such companies as Palo Alto Networks ( PANW ), Check Point Software Technology ( CHKP ) and Fortinet ( FTNT ). In total, the C3 Alliance has 15 members across cybersecurity, enterprise software and infrastructure. They include Qualys ( QLYS ), Rapid7 ( RPD ), Varonis Systems ( VRNS ) and Belden ( BDC )-owned Tripwire. CyberArk tech will be integrated into the partners’ software. Megabreaches like that of retailer Target ( TGT ) in 2014 have highlighted the need to secure credentialed accounts, says Adam Bosnian, CyberArk’s executive vice president of global business development. Privileged account protection is at CyberArk’s core. “We saw more and more organizations becoming aware of being exposed by these power accounts,” Bosnian told IBD. The C3 Alliance aims to “solve these challenges and leverage the valuable data that comes off that security.” CyberArk’s technology will be integrated in a variety of ways, Bosnian said. C3 member Tenable Network Security, a continuous monitoring and vulnerability management company, requires credentialed access to perform deep-dive hunting for vulnerabilities, Tenable strategist Cris Thomas told IBD. A hacker needs only one credential to wreak havoc. “When a hacker attacks an organization, they compromise one specific point,” Thomas said. “To move, they need a Zero Day (vulnerability). … The easiest way to do it is to steal credentials. Those are the prized goals of an attacker.” Integrating technology from CyberArk and Tenable lets Tenable’s 20,000 customers store credentialed passwords using CyberArk software, he said. It also gums up any holes existing between the vendors’ software, making intrusion that much more difficult. Bosnian doesn’t foresee “one-off, snowflake” integrations. He sees CyberArk tech, in conjunction with partners’ software, providing a platform-like infrastructure, constantly evolving as new integrations are added to the mix. Customers are still leery of the platform, which might be “best-of-breed in one piece of the platform but not in another,” Bosnian said. The C3 Alliance, however, is comprised of best-of-breed tech woven into one unified solution that shares data bidirectionally, he says. C3 is not a monolithic alliance, he said. “These partners are improving how they use privileged accounts in their environment,” he said. “The real magic is when there are use cases built on top of that to solve real problems. That’s what we’re trying to do.” CyberArk stock was up 2% in midday trading in the stock market today .

Check Point Q1 EPS Growth Seen Slipping Despite Steady Sales Growth

No. 1 cybersecurity firm Check Point Software Technology ( CHKP ) is expected early Wednesday to report its sixth consecutive quarter of 9% sales growth, but analysts model Q1 earnings decelerating to a single digit after four quarters of double-digit growth. For Q1, the consensus of 34 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters projects Check Point posting $404.4 million in sales and $1.03 earnings per share ex items, up 9% and 8%, respectively. Three months ago, Check Point guided to $395 million-$410 million and 99 cents-$1.05. For 2016, the company models $1.72 billion to $1.79 billion in sales and $4.45-$4.45 EPS minus items, up a respective 8% and 9%. On a year-over-year basis, Check Point’s sales have risen 9% for five straight quarters. The company’s EPS has risen by at least 11% for four consecutive quarters. Check Point’s Q1 deceleration would be the first in the past three quarters. In afternoon trading on the stock market today , Check Point stock was down 1.5%, near 88, reflecting a 2% dip in IBD’s 41-company Computer Software-Security industry group. Check Point is No. 1 in the group by market cap ($15.6 billion) and boasts a group-leading Composite Rating of 84 out of a best-possible 99. Last week, it broke out at an 88.59 buy point. Others leaders like Palo Alto Networks ( PANW ), CyberArk Software ( CYBR ) and Symantec ( SYMC ) have middling CRs of 56, 50 and 44, respectively.