Business Corpus: Fortinet Stock Tumbles On Smaller Beat As Symantec Stock RisesInvestors on Friday punished cybersecurity firm Fortinet for reporting a smaller beat than a quarter earlier but rewarded Symantec, whose revenue fell from a year earlier but still topped expectations The post Fortinet Stock Tumbles On Smaller Beat As Symantec Stock Rises appeared first on Investor's Business Daily.

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Investors punished cybersecurity firm Fortinet (FTNT) Friday for reporting a smaller beat than a quarter earlier but rewarded Symantec (SYMC), whose revenue fell but still topped expectations.

Fortinet stock plunged 13.3% to close at 72.56 on the stock market today. Symantec stock climbed 4.1% to 19.50.

Fortinet Stock: Results Beat

Fortinet late Thursday reported adjusted third-quarter profit and revenue that topped estimates with December-quarter guidance just above expectations.

"While the magnitude of the beat was lower than last quarter, management still raised the annual revenue guidance by $10 million at the midpoint, despite only exceeding the midpoint in Q3 by $4 million," Piper Jaffray analyst Andrew Nowinski said in a note to clients.

Fortinet said adjusted earnings were 49 cents a share, up 75% from a year ago, with revenue rising 21% to 454 million, topping analyst forecasts. For the December quarter, Fortinet predicts earnings of 51 cents and revenue of $495 million. Analysts had projected 50-cent profit on revenue of $492 million.

Has Symantec Put Investigation Behind It?

Symantec said its third-quarter revenue fell 5% to $1.175 billion from a year earlier. But analysts had projected $1.14 billion.

Symantec said profit climbed 5% to 42 cents a share. That topped estimates of 33 cents.

In May, Mountain View, Calif.-based Symantec reported quarterly results that solidly exceeded expectations. But shares plunged after the company disclosed an internal accounting probe.

Activist investor Starboard Value this summer disclosed a nearly 6% stake in the cybersecurity company. Starboard said it has nominated five directors to Symantec's board.

"Symantec did not report anything new related to its internal investigation, with its audit committee investigation concluding in late September resulting in only minor adjustments to financials in fourth quarter 2018 and first quarter 2019," William Blair analyst Jonathan Ho said in his note to clients.

Ho added: "We believe the company is largely past the internal and external distraction associated with the investigation and can now renew its focus on improving results."

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