• Subscribe
  • Log In
  • Home
  • Daily Diary
  • Asset Class
    • U.S. Equity
    • Fixed Income
    • Global Equity
    • Commodities
    • Currencies
  • Sector
    • Basic Materials
    • Consumer Discretionary
    • Consumer Staples
    • Energy
    • Financial Services
    • Healthcare
    • Industrials
    • Real Estate
    • Technology
    • Telecom Services
    • Transportation
    • Utilities
  • Latest
    • Articles
    • Video
    • Columnist Conversations
    • Best Ideas
    • Stock of the Day
  • Street Notes
  • Authors
    • Doug Kass
    • Bruce Kamich
    • Jim Cramer
    • Jim "Rev Shark" DePorre
    • Helene Meisler
    • Jonathan Heller
    • - See All -
  • Options
  • RMPIA
  • Switch Product
    • Action Alerts PLUS
    • Quant Ratings
    • Real Money
    • Real Money Pro
    • Retirement
    • Stocks Under $10
    • TheStreet
    • Top Stocks
    • Trifecta Stocks
  1. Home
  2. / Investing
  3. / Technology

Cramer: Cybersecurity Suddenly Looks Shaky

Fortinet reveals weakness in what has been a strong sector.
By JIM CRAMER
Oct 11, 2016 | 06:27 PM EDT
Stocks quotes in this article: FTNT, PFPT, PANW

Again today, we see why this is, suddenly, such a hard market. Tonight Fortinet (FTNT) , a very good cybersecurity firm, pre-announced some disappointing numbers. It wasn't disastrous: $311 million to $316 million in revenues when the Street was looking for $322 million, but this has been one of the strongest areas of tech, so it's a very big deal.

The cause? Company CEO Ken Xie cited "the lengthening of deal cycles." Why is that? "Enterprises are becoming more strategic with their purchasing decisions and buying with less urgency than last year." While the company remains "confident in the underlying strength" of its business and "long-term growth opportunity," it's pretty stunning, although the company did cite some poor sales execution issues in North America and macro issues in Latin America and the U.K. (Fortinet is part of TheStreet's Growth Seeker portfolio.) 

Now the reason why this is so stunning is that last week I had two other cybersecurity standouts, Proofpoint (PFPT) and Palo Alto Networks (PANW) , and, literally, they both told me that business was very strong and they saw big tailwinds for their cybersecurity wares. If you had watched either interview or both, you would have thought Fortinet was killing it, not getting killed by it.

Now I don't think either Proofpoint or Palo Alto is making statements that they can't back up. Just the opposite; these are conservative companies.

That said, do you think anyone will bother to distinguish among these, especially when many of them trade in the PureFunds ISE Cybersecurity ETF, or HACK as it is known.

So it goes: A red-hot area last week turns stone cold just a handful of days after hearing fabulous stories of momentum no matter what the environment.

That's just plain treacherous.

Get an email alert each time I write an article for Real Money. Click the "+Follow" next to my byline to this article.

Action Alerts PLUS, which Cramer co-manages as a charitable trust, has no positions in the stocks mentioned.

TAGS: Investing | U.S. Equity | Technology | Earnings

More from Technology

China's Moves to Stop Buying U.S. Tech Aren't Going Away - But They Have Limits

Eric Jhonsa
Dec 9, 2019 3:16 PM EST

Beijing is intent on reducing its dependence on American hardware, software and chips. But reducing it and eliminating are two very different things.

The Final 4 Unsightly Stocks Going Into My Next Tax-Loss Selling Portfolio

Jonathan Heller
Dec 9, 2019 12:00 PM EST

We'll track a dozen beaten-up stocks that could be subject to tax-loss selling at the end of 2019 to see whether they can stage comebacks in 2020.

Want a Slice of Apple? You Have Some Options

Bob Lang
Dec 9, 2019 11:00 AM EST

You can buy strategically on dips to avoid getting left holding the bag as prices keep rising.

Time to Take a Risk With Amazon, a Trade With Netflix

Carolyn Boroden
Dec 9, 2019 8:30 AM EST

Here I outline how to play NFLX and AMZN, but the latter comes with a catch.

Here's a Recap of the Small Caps vs. the Large Caps

Helene Meisler
Dec 9, 2019 6:00 AM EST

What just happened last week? Quite a bit, but pay attention to this: For the past two years, the large cap QQQs had been the leaders, but not so lately.

Real Money's message boards are strictly for the open exchange of investment ideas among registered users. Any discussions or subjects off that topic or that do not promote this goal will be removed at the discretion of the site's moderators. Abusive, insensitive or threatening comments will not be tolerated and will be deleted. Thank you for your cooperation. If you have questions, please contact us here.

Email

CANCEL
SUBMIT

Email sent

Thank you, your email to has been sent successfully.

DONE

Oops!

We're sorry. There was a problem trying to send your email to .
Please contact customer support to let us know.

DONE

Please Join or Log In to Email Our Authors.

Email Real Money's Wall Street Pros for further analysis and insight

Already a Subscriber? Login

Columnist Conversation

  • 11:02 AM EST BOB LANG

    Added Some Peleton

    This stock is starting to gain some traction, the ...
  • 01:06 PM EST CAROLYN BORODEN

    MRK and LVS Targets Coming Up

    View Chart » View in New Window »  LVS View C...
  • 12:01 PM EST BOB LANG

    Rolling Up Apple

    Just the other day we added some Apple calls on th...
  • See More

COLUMNIST TWEETS

  • A Twitter List by realmoney
About Privacy Terms of Use

© 1996-2019 TheStreet, Inc., 14 Wall Street, 15th Fl, NY, NY 10005

Need Help? Contact Customer Service

Except as otherwise indicated, quotes are delayed. Quotes delayed at least 20 minutes for all exchanges. Market Data & Company fundamental data provided by FactSet. Earnings and ratings provided by Zacks. Mutual fund data provided by Valueline. ETF data provided by Lipper. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions Group.

TheStreet Ratings updates stock ratings daily. However, if no rating change occurs, the data on this page does not update. The data does update after 90 days if no rating change occurs within that time period.

FactSet calculates the Market Cap for the basic symbol to include common shares only. Year-to-date mutual fund returns are calculated on a monthly basis by Value Line and posted mid-month.

Compare Brokers

Please Join or Log In to manage and receive alerts.

Follow Real Money's Wall Street Pros to receive real-time investing alerts

Already a Subscriber? Login