Oppenheimer Sees Departure of Fortinet CFO/COO Ahmad Rubaie as a Near-Term Negative

In a report published Friday, Oppenheimer analyst Shaul Eyal reiterated an Outperform rating and $26.00 price target on

. In the report, Oppenheimer noted, “FTNT announced that its CFO/COO, Ahmad Rubaie is departing for personal reasons. Nancy Bush, VP Corporate Controller was named interim CFO, a position she already filled from 9/2012-4/2013. FTNT initiated a search for a new CFO. We view the move negatively near term as: 1) aside from his CFO role Mr. Rubaie was FTNT's COO responsible for its daily operations, a role we felt was performed well in the short duration he spent at FTNT; 2) while 4Q13 performance should be driven by year-end seasonality we hope to see FTNT keeping operational discipline not letting business slip away due to the departure; and 3) Rubaie's M&A background (sold Ariba to SAP) was viewed as instrumental to FTNT's LT strategy. Maintain Outperform.” Fortinet closed on Wednesday at $19.64.