The Piper Jaffray Note Shaking The Cybersecurity World

Piper Jaffray commented on the datacenter technology industry Monday following its 1Q15 Security Reseller survey.

The firm asked resellers for their Q2 June expectations, based on the deal pipeline they have for each vendor. The outcome indicates if resellers were expecting above normal or below normal seasonality in Q2.

Below are results from analyst Andrew J. Nowinski with highlights for 8 companies included in the survey, including ratings and price targets.

Palo Alto Networks Inc PANW - Overweight, $165 price target

The company "had the strongest results of all vendors in Q1, with 54 percent of resellers above plan with net +35 percent result. This was the highest percentage above plan since 4Q13. Palo Alto also had the highest percent of resellers expecting above normal seasonality in Q2(June) with 60 percent."

Related Link: 30 Cybersecurity Stocks In A Dangerous Digital World

FireEye Inc FEYE - Overweight, $45 price target

“This was a modest downtick from our Q4 survey (net +33 percent), but relative to other vendors, the results were still very strong. For Q2, only 20 percent of resellers expect FireEye to come in above normal seasonality.”

Barracuda Networks Inc CUDA - Overweight, $44 price target

“Barracuda had 25 percent of resellers above plan in Q1 (net +12 percent), which was a significant improvement over Q4 (net 0 percent).”

Cyberark Software Ltd CYBR - Neutral, $54 price target

“In Q4, CYBR had net results of -16 percent, so Q1 was a modest improvement. For Q2, 67 percent of resellers expect normal seasonality.”

Symantec Corporation SYMC - Neutral, $26 price target

“This is a sharp decline from Q4, in which the company had net results of +8 percent. For Q2, Symantec had the weakest pipeline of all vendors, with 50 percent of resellers expecting below normal seasonality.”

Fortinet Inc FTNT - Overweight, $38 price target

“Fortinet's results also declined in Q1 as the company only had 13 percent of resellers above plan. This resulted in a net of -25 percent, which was a sharp decline from Q4, in which the company had a net of +6 percent.”

Imperva Inc IMPV - Overweight, $46 price target

“Imperva had no resellers above plan in Q1, resulting in a net of -29 percent. This was a slight downturn from our Q4 results, where Imperva had a net of -20 percent. Looking ahead to Q2, 75 percent of resellers expect normal seasonality.”

Proofpoint Inc PFPT - Overweight, $65 price target

“Proofpoint also had no resellers above plan in Q1, resulting in a net of -56 percent. This was a significant downturn from our Q4 results, in which Proofpoint was one of the top performers in the survey (net +20 percent). However, looking ahead to Q2, 33 percent of resellers expect better-than-normal seasonality, which is the 2nd strongest pipeline.”