Fortinet latest security firm to see shares bomb in tepid Q1

Firewall maker suffers 16.4 per cent stock price decline after revealing that first-quarter numbers are set to disappoint

Fortinet has become the latest security vendor to suffer a sharp decline in its share price after posting below-expectation first-quarter numbers.

The California-based network security outfit posted preliminary Q1 results today and expects quarterly sales to come in between $134m (£87m) and $136m, compared with an earlier forecast of $138m to $141m. Total billings are forecast to be in the range of $147m to $149m, down from an earlier projection of $158m to $162m.

Non-GAAP net income per share should be about $0.10, a figure that has come down from an expected $0.11 to $0.12. A sharp decline in Fortinet's share price began just before the New York market closed yesterday and by the end of after-hours trading the company's stock had suffered a decline of 16.4 per cent.

"Our financial results were negatively affected by a few deals in the US service provider segment which did not close as expected, macro factors in Latin America and EMEA, and, to a lesser extent, the timing of new appliance product releases and inventory shortages," said Fortinet chief executive Ken Xie.

"We were pleased with the strong performance of the Asia-Pacific region as well as traction in the US enterprise sector during the first quarter. We remain optimistic about Fortinet's long-term opportunities as our products and innovation are strong and security demand drivers remain high."

During the economic struggles of the past five years the security market has often been cited as one which has proved comparatively resilient compared with the wider IT sector. But Fortinet is the third security vendor in a week to have endured a pallid first quarter.

Last week application delivery controller specialists F5 Networks and Radware endured share-price declines of 20 and 18 per cent respectively, in light of Q1 sales that did not match expectations. Both companies pointed to softness in EMEA as a driver for the muted numbers.