Billion Dollar Unicorns: FireEye Targets A Profitable Year

According to a recent Market Research report, the global cyber security market is expected to grow at a steady pace of 10% annually over the next few years to $172 billion by 2024. FireEye (Nasdaq: FEYE) is one of the emerging players in the industry that went public nearly five years ago. It is known for its platform that strengthens existing firewalls, IPS, anti-virus, and gateways by blocking attacks across multiple platforms. It recently announced its second quarter results that surpassed the market’s expectations.

FireEye’s Financials

Revenues for the second quarter grew 6% to $203 million with billings growing 13% to $196 million. During the quarter, the company continued to report losses. Operating losses reduced from $57 million a year ago to $48.5 million for the quarter. On an adjusted basis though, FireEye managed to report a break-even quarter. This was the first quarter that the company did not report a non-GAAP loss. It expects to continue with the performance and is on track to deliver non-GAAP profitability and positive free cash flow for 2018. The market was looking for revenues of $201.4 million for the quarter with a loss of $0.01 per share. The Street had forecast billings of $188.3 million for the quarter. Previous coverage is available here and here.

By segment, FireEye’s Product, subscription and support revenues grew 6% over the year to $167.4 million. Professional services revenues grew 5% to $35.3 million. Over the past few quarters, FireEye had been focusing on growing its virtual appliances and cloud-based solutions purchased on a subscription basis. During the reported quarter, more than 80% of its non-services billings were recurring subscriptions and support.

For the current quarter, FireEye currently expects revenue in the range of $206-$210 million and billings in the range of $210-$220 million. It projected a non-GAAP net income of $0.01-$0.03 per share. For the current fiscal, FireEye expects revenues of $820-$830 million with non-GAAP net income of $0.00-$0.04 per share. The Street was looking for revenues of $207.9 million for the quarter.