What happened
Top cybersecurity stock Fortinet (FTNT 1.00%) has certainly had its good trading sessions on the market, but Tuesday's wasn't one of them. The company's share price slipped by nearly 1%, more or less matching the slide of the S&P 500 index, on the latest piece of news from its investor relations team.
So what
That morning, Fortinet announced that it will unveil its fourth-quarter results just over one month from now, on Tuesday, Feb. 7 just after market close.
That probably brought back some uncomfortable memories of the company's third-quarter earnings release, which was published in early November 2022.
While revenue and, especially, net income saw robust double-digit, year-over-year increases and beat analyst estimates, Fortinet's guidance left something to be desired. Specifically, investors were dismayed that the company's projection for total billings in the fourth quarter fell short of those prognosticators' average forecast.
Now what
While total billings is a key financial metric for Fortinet, it's not the only number that matters. Analysts are still modeling growth in the headline figures for the company; for the fourth quarter they're collectively modeling a solid 56% year-over-year improvement in per-share net income, on the back of a nearly 40% improvement in revenue.
Although some include Fortinet in the big tent that is tech stocks, its specific corner is the cybersecurity subsector that has relatively outperformed its peers. Demand for cybersecurity services, in a world that always seems to be under some kind of threat from determined hackers, should continue to be strong. So even if we get disappointing guidance from the company again, investors might do well to hang on to the stock.
