What happened

Shares of FireEye Inc. (MNDT) were up 13.4% as of 12:30 p.m. EDT after the cybersecurity solutions company announced better-than-expected first-quarter 2017 results. 

So what

Quarterly revenue rose a modest 3.4% year over year, to $173.7 million, and translated to an adjusted net loss of $15.1 million, or $0.09 per share. Three months ago, FireEye told investors to expect lower first-quarter revenue of $160 million to $166 million and a wider adjusted net loss of $0.26 to $0.28.

FireEye Logo

IMAGE SOURCE: FIREEYE.

"We made continued progress on our path to profitability in the first quarter," added FireEye CEO Kevin Mandia, "improving operational efficiency while managing transitions on multiple fronts. We met or exceeded our guidance ranges on all financial metrics, and achieved significant milestones on our product roadmap, including the general availability of the FireEye Helix platform and a new release of our next generation HX endpoint solution."

Now what

What's more, FireEye now expects full-year 2017 revenue of $724 million to $736 million and an adjusted net loss per share in the range of $0.26 to $0.36. For perspective, analysts' consensus estimates were predicting a full-year adjusted net loss of $0.48 per share and revenue of $723.2 million.

In the end, this was a straightforward quarterly beat followed by encouraging guidance from FireEye, and investors have every right to celebrate their company's progress today.