This Analyst Is A Little Skeptical Of FireEye's 'Reinvigorated' Growth Outlook For 2017

Barclays’ Saket Kalia expressed caution regarding the comments made by FireEye Inc FEYE on “reinvigorated” growth in FY 2017, stating that the Street expectations might prove too high.

Kalia maintained an Equal-Weight rating on the company, with a price target of $16.

Kalia believes the comments by management regarding “reinvigorated” growth refers to growth rates versus H2 2016 rather than FY 2016.

Q3 & Other Positives

FireEye reported its Q3 results, with EPS beating expectations, which the analyst views as the biggest positive for the quarter.

A Nasdaq report pointed out that over the last three fiscal years, FireEye shares rose in the extended hours session, in response to the company’s earnings announcements.

“After two quarters of missing and guiding down, we expect coming in at the high end of billings and revenue guidance with lower expenses will be viewed disproportionately positively for FEYE at these valuations,” Kalia went on to say.

Longer term, Kalia expects the early data points on Cloud MVX, which would prove the competitive response to firewall competitors, would prove important for sentiment toward the stock.

While the company’s engagement with its different channel partners is a “work-in-progress”, FireEye-as-a-Service, via the new MVX architecture, could prove to be a next-gen endpoint solution.