Security Freeze: Giants IBM, Cisco ‘Squeeze’ Palo Alto, Check Point

Fears of a broad cybersecurity freeze could amplify after vendors Palo Alto Networks(PANW) and FireEye (FEYE) missed April-quarter expectations and Check Point Software Technology (CHKP), Fortinet (FTNT) and Imperva (IMPV) guided toward slower growth.

Then again, rather than a broad slowdown, the pure-play security leaders might in fact be losing some business to tech giants Cisco Systems (CSCO) and IBM (IBM), which are expanding deeper into security, and to specialized security vendors such as CyberArk Software (CYBR), Proofpoint(PFPT) and Mimecast (MIME).

“Investors tend to look at security as a single sector, and the reality is you have a lot of different plays here,” Pacific Crest analyst Rob Owens told IBD. “In aggregate, we’re seeing relatively consistent spending. There is some shifting that is happening, but that makes sense.”

Security spending overall rose 13% year over year in Q1, barely down from 14% growth in Q4, Owens says. He says those growth rates are consistent with the past two years. For the full article click here 

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