[from the 8/8/2016 issue of Breakthrough Tech Weekly]

FireEye (NSDQ: FEYE) tumbled after reporting another difficult quarter, which seems to be a recurring theme for the company. Second quarter revenue came in at $175 million, up 18.9% year-over-year but still well below the expected $181 million. Billings also came up short at $196.4 million compared to expectations of about $209 billion, and as a result the company posted a GAAP loss of $139.3 million, or -$0.86 per share. Using the non-GAAP basis that the company prefers, and most analysts track, losses actually narrowed year-over-year to -$0.33 per share.

From a long term perspective, FireEye has a solid plan in place to grow its business and achieve profitability. But the main problem is timing: Given the company’s slow entry into SaaS, its failure to adapt to the changing threat landscape and the fact that it has lagged its competition in playing well with other products, it will take some time for the plan to come together. Most of the company’s investors are clearly tired of waiting though.

We’ve maintained a “buy” on the company for more than a year-and-a-half now, and we’re tired of waiting as well. Over that time for every step forward FireEye has taken, it seems to stumble two steps back, so if it FireEye does start making progress we can always buy it back later. But it looks like now’s the time to cut our loss and sell.

Sell FireEye.