The stock market closed mixed on Monday, kicking off a busy week of economic news.
Investors braced for Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell congressional testimony on Tuesday and Wednesday, which is seen to guide investors and lawmakers. In addition, February’s jobs report will be out on Friday.
Overall, S&P 500 was up 0.1% to 4,048, while NASDAQ fell 0.1% to 11,676.
Tweet of the Day
Is this remotely realistic? That public Cloud “AI spend“ (now 25% of total Cloud spend) would increase from $136bn last year to $328bn (+$189bn in absolute terms) in just four years? Will corporates just keep throwing this much money to the Cloud vendors? 🤔 $GOOGL $MSFT $AMZN pic.twitter.com/BSAJPgOEZS
— Wasteland Capital (@ecommerceshares) March 6, 2023
Chart of the Day
Here is the one-year chart of Fortinet (FTNT) as of February 22, 2023, when the stock was at $60.
Fortinet is one of our favorite cybersecurity stocks. And the stock proved its worth when it broke out after the company reported last qtr’s earnings. FTNT delivered 76% profit growth last qtr, as sales rose a solid 33%. Revenue grew 33% as billings (future revenue) grew 32%.
The company landed some big clients last qtr as $1 million deals jumped 48% year-over-year to 181. Analysts were impressed with the qtr, as other cybersecurity companies have talked about elongated sales cycles and budget scrutiny. Fortinet responded by stating demand is still pretty strong as the company has a better cost solution.
FTNT is part of the Growth Portfolio. This stock just broke out after the company reported earnings, and that is a bullish sign.
