FireEye reported a third-quarter earnings and revenue beat
FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE) reported a third-quarter earnings and revenue beat after yesterday's close. The cybersecurity company also raised its sales forecast, after which a couple analysts chimed in with mild price-target hikes of $1 each -- Piper Sandler to $16 and UBS to $15. Piper Sandler added that the encouraging quarter included further clarification of a cloud vision, which will be important for increased upside. Oscillating between the red and black in a so far rocky day of trading, FEYE is down 1.9% at $13.81 at last check.
Struggling to break above recent pressure at the $14.40 level, the security has closed seven of the last eight sessions lower. Year-to-date FEYE is down 16.4%, but has nearly doubled off its March 17 lows at $7.54.
On the analyst front, seven of the 12 analysts in coverage sport a "buy" or better rating on FEYE, with the remaining five at a lukewarm "hold." Meanwhile, the 12-month consensus price target of $17.17 coming into today is a 24.3% premium to current levels.
Though short interest has started to fall off, the 23.21 million shares sold short still account for 10.9% of the stock's available float. At FEYE's average pace of trading, it would take nearly six days to buy back these bearish bets.
FireEye stock's 50-day call/put volume ratio of 15.88 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) sits higher than 79% of readings from the past year, revealing a penchant for long calls of late. Given the amount of short interest tied up in FEYE, its possible some of this call buying could be shorts hedging against any additional upside.