What happened

Shares of Tenable (TENB 0.58%) are falling today, down by 8% as of 12:10 p.m. EST, after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings. The results topped expectations, but guidance left a bit to be desired.

So what

Revenue in the fourth quarter was $118.1 million, ahead of the $114.6 million in sales that Wall Street was modeling for. That translated into adjusted net income of $14.4 million, or $0.13 per share. The consensus estimate had called for just $0.06 per share in adjusted profits. The cybersecurity technology company said calculated current billings increased 20% to $150.5 million.

Red stock chart going down with columns of numbers in the background

Image source: Getty Images.

"Underpinning our strong financial performance is healthy demand for securing new cloud deployments and digital infrastructure as the threat environment escalates," CEO Amit Yoran said in a statement. "Tenable's risk-based vulnerability management solutions provide unified visibility across this expanding attack surface, enabling customers to understand, quantify and ultimately reduce their risk."

Now what

Investors were disappointed in Tenable's guidance. The company's outlook for the first quarter calls for $118 million to $120 million in sales, modestly short of the consensus estimate of $120.9 million. Adjusted EPS is forecast at $0.04 to $0.06, roughly in line with the $0.04 per share in adjusted profits that analysts are looking for.

Looking further out, Tenable expects revenue for full-year 2021 to be in the range of $565 million to $575 million, which is also shy of the $521 million that Wall Street is hoping for.