Fortinet shares plummet more than 10% after firm lowers guidance
Fortinet shares fell more than 15 percent in Wednesday morning trading after the company issued lower guidance for third quarter earnings.
The California-based company said Tuesday it was projecting third quarter earnings of between 15 cents and 16 cents per share, below a Reuters consensus estimate of 18 cents a share.
The stock later recovered some of its losses, but it still ended the day down 10 percent.
The cybersecurity solutions company also reduced its expected total revenue in the range of $311 million to $316 million compared to previous guidance of $319 million to $324 million.
"Our third quarter results were primarily impacted by the lengthening of deal cycles as enterprises are becoming more strategic with their purchasing decisions and buying with less urgency than last year," said the CEO of Fortient Ken Xie said in the press release.
Founded in 2000, the company has encountered "sales execution challenges in the North America resulting from the newness of our sales organization, as well as macro issues in Latin America and the U.K," said Xie.
The company also said it would authorize and additional $100 million to a share repurchase program, and that it had bought back $25 million in stock during Q3. The official results for the third quarter will be released on October 27th.
Five-day performance of Fortinet
-- CNBC's Fred Imbert contributed to this report.