FireEye Inc. (NASDAQ: FEYE) is scheduled to report its second quarter financial results after the markets close Thursday. There are consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters that call for a net loss of $0.48 in EPS on $143.18 million in revenue. The same period from the previous year had a net loss of $0.55 on $94.49 in revenue.

This was another stock that was hit hard at the beginning of June. The stock tumbled almost 18% in less than three weeks. It has been mentioned recently as a takeover target, with a lot of the chatter centering on Cisco, which claims it is not interested. FireEye recently announced that it will be working with Visa to help the credit card giant develop products for merchants and credit card issuers to defend against large-scale attacks on payment data. The company plays in an arena where it may drive the next big wave of cybersecurity technology.

FireEye has invented a purpose-built, virtual machine-based security platform that provides real-time threat protection to enterprises and governments worldwide against the next generation of cyberattacks. These highly sophisticated cyberattacks easily circumvent traditional signature-based defenses, such as next-generation firewalls, IPS, anti-virus and gateways. The FireEye Threat Prevention Platform provides real-time, dynamic threat protection without the use of signatures, to protect an organization across the primary threat vectors and across the different stages of an attack life cycle. The core of the FireEye platform is a virtual execution engine, complemented by dynamic threat intelligence, to identify and block cyberattacks in real time. FireEye has more than 3,400 customers across 67 countries, including more than 250 of the Fortune 500.

Hacks and data security breaches in recent years have torn up some consumers’ lives and cumulatively have cost companies billions of dollars, but several cybersecurity outfits are looking to protect consumer interests and corporate interests alike. Visa recently announced a new contract with FireEye to protect consumers. The case might be a total “game changer” in cybersecurity going forward.

Basically, as Visa’s network security becomes more policed by FireEye, customers stand to be safer than they were previously. At this point Visa is looking out for its own best interests, but it is giving FireEye, and for that matter the whole cybersecurity field, a shot at the big leagues.

Ahead of earnings a few analysts weighed in on FireEye:

• Oppenheimer upgraded the company to an Outperform rating with a $58 price target.
• Citigroup downgraded FireEye to a Hold rating.
• Dougherty initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a price target.

Shares of FireEye were down 1.4% at $46.90 on Thursday morning. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $52.93 and a 52-week trading range of $24.81 to $55.33.

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