Top Cybersecurity Stock Fortinet Forecasts Strong Growth for 2023 -- Is the Stock a Buy?
Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT) stock is rocking and rolling again after its fourth-quarter 2022 earnings update. This top cybersecurity pure play not only put the icing on a great couple of years, it also added to shareholder optimism that it can achieve the lofty goals it set for itself at an investor event a few months ago. With shares quickly climbing back toward their all-time highs from nearly a year ago, is Fortinet still a buy?
Fortinet has been handily beating the overall market for years, and longtime shareholders know the secret sauce is the company's custom hardware. As the company pointed out during its investor presentation in December 2022, its proprietary chip technology (the security processing unit, or SPU) is best-in-breed. It's a big reason Fortinet wins business, as it helps its customers embed security solutions directly into their network infrastructure.
This competitive strength was on financial display in Q4 2022. Management reported total revenue increased 33% year over year to $1.28 billion, including a 43% year-over-year increase in product sales (networking hardware featuring those Fortinet chips) to $540 million. It caps off an epic year of growth. Total 2022 revenue was up 32% to $4.42 billion (including $1.78 billion in product, a 42% increase). This builds on what was also a stellar 2021, when total revenue grew 29%.
Source Fool.com
