Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of Barracuda Networks Inc (NYSE: CUDA) rose more than 10% in Thursday's early trading, then settled to close up around 7% on the heels of solid quarterly results from fellow cloud services specialist Proofpoint (PFPT). Proofpoint, for its part, rallied 13% today after it beat analysts' expectations on both revenue and earnings, then followed with encouraging forward guidance.
Separately, Barracuda also announced the extension of its SSL VPN solution to mobile devices.
So what: Barracuda Networks released its own impressive quarterly results last week, which included total revenue that increased 15% to $60.3 million, and adjusted earnings of $0.06 per share. Both numbers were well ahead of expectations, and they even spurred an upgrade to buy from neutral, with a $39.50 price target from Merril Lynch.
In addition, with Barracuda SSL VPN 2.5, Barracuda Networks now affords businesses the ability to offer employees improved remote access to internal web applications and files from iPads, iPhones, Windows phones, and Android devices -- all without having to deploy or support full-fledged VPN clients.
Now what: As a recovering IT geek, I can attest to the value of an easy-to-implement VPN solution for a variety of mobile devices. This has become especially apparent as more companies adopt "bring your own device" policies, which make it difficult for IT administrators to cater to all of their networks' remote users.
In the end, I like Barracuda Networks, even if today's gains were largely the result of being guilty by association with an outperforming peer. Given Barracuda Network's expanded offerings and solid results last week, I can't blame the market for bidding up shares today.
