Raises 2026 revenue guidance to 20% year over year growth
Highlights
- Revenue grew 20% year over year to $2.08 billion
- Product revenue grew 37% year over year to $765 million
- Billings grew 29% year over year to $2.34 billion1
- GAAP operating margin of 34%
- Non-GAAP operating margin of 38%1
- GAAP earnings per share of $0.86
- Non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.911
- Operating cash flow of $946 million
- Free cash flow of $865 million1
- Share repurchase authorization increased by $1.2 billion; remaining authorization of $2 billion
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 28, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fortinet® (Nasdaq: FTNT), a global cybersecurity leader driving the convergence of networking and security, today announced financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2026.
“We are very pleased with our excellent third quarter results, which reflect strong execution and broad-based demand across our entire portfolio, allowing us to raise our 2026 billings guidance for the third time this year,” said Ken Xie, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fortinet. “Our strong momentum is driven by our continued leadership in the AI era. As AI introduces entirely new attack surfaces, Network Security remains the critical foundation of AI Security. Powered by our single FortiOS operating system and proprietary FortiASIC technology, our unified platform approach secures critical AI infrastructure while delivering industry-leading performance and a significantly lower total cost of ownership.”
Recent Business Highlights
Announced the new FortiGuard Inline AI Security Service, delivering AI-specific inspection and guardrails to FortiGate customers through a cloud-delivered service, enabling organizations to gain deeper visibility into AI activity and stop AI threats and data exposure through the Fortinet solutions they already use.
- Announced the FortiLink SASE service, giving organizations a simpler way to secure small branch office, remote facilities, and other distributed locations without requiring a dedicated on-site firewall. By connecting local networks to FortiSASE, organizations can protect and manage wired and wireless devices through a simplified, cloud-delivered service while managing networking and security from a single console.
- Selected by NVIDIA as a top OpenShell Reference Architecture Partner to Secure AI.
- Oracle and Fortinet announced a collaboration to help enterprises securely accelerate AI adoption, combining OCI Enterprise AI with FortiAIGate to protect and govern AI applications and agents at scale while maintaining visibility and control.
- Selected by Microsoft to join its Sovereign Partner Ecosystem based on Fortinet’s sovereign solution strength, to together deliver trusted sovereign AI security solutions to highly regulated industries.
- Recognized as a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Hybrid Mesh Firewall and positioned highest for Ability to Execute for the second consecutive year.
Guidance
For the fourth quarter of 2026, Fortinet currently expects:
- Revenue in the range of $2.155 billion to $2.245 billion
- Billings in the range of $2.775 billion to $2.925 billion
- Non-GAAP gross margin in the range of 78.0% to 80.0%
- Non-GAAP operating margin in the range of 35.5% to 37.5%
- Diluted non-GAAP net income per share in the range of $0.93 to $0.95, assuming a non-GAAP effective tax rate of 18%. This assumes a diluted share count of 741 million to 745 million.
For the fiscal year 2026, Fortinet currently expects:
- Revenue in the range of $8.125 billion to $8.215 billion
- Service revenue in the range of $5.150 billion to $5.170 billion
- Billings in the range of $9.568 billion to $9.718 billion
- Non-GAAP gross margin in the range of 79.7% to 80.3%
- Non-GAAP operating margin in the range of 36.5% to 37.5%
- Diluted non-GAAP net income per share in the range of $3.54 to $3.58, assuming a non-GAAP effective tax rate of 18%. This assumes a diluted share count of 741 million to 743 million.
These statements are forward looking and actual results may differ materially. Refer to the Forward-Looking Statements section below for information on the factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements.
Our guidance with respect to non-GAAP financial measures excludes stock-based compensation, amortization of acquired intangible assets, gain on intellectual property matters, a gain from an escrow settlement and a tax adjustment required for an effective tax rate on a non-GAAP basis, which differs from the GAAP effective tax rate. We have not reconciled our guidance with respect to non-GAAP financial measures to the corresponding GAAP measures because certain items that impact these measures are uncertain or out of our control or cannot be reasonably predicted. Accordingly, a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the corresponding GAAP measures is not available without unreasonable effort.
Conference Call Details
Fortinet will host a conference call today at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time (4:30 p.m. Eastern Time) to discuss the earnings results. A live webcast of the conference call and supplemental slides will be accessible from the Investor Relations page of Fortinet’s website at https://investor.fortinet.com and a replay will be archived and accessible at https://investor.fortinet.com/events-and-presentations.
Fourth Quarter 2026 Conference Participation Schedule:
- BMO Technology and Innovation Leaders Conference
November 12, 2026 - UBS Global Technology and AI Conference
December 2, 2026 - Barclays Global Technology Conference
December 9, 2026
Members of Fortinet’s management team are expected to present at these conferences and discuss the latest company strategies and initiatives. Fortinet’s conference presentations are expected to be available via webcast on the company’s website. To access the most updated information, pre-register and listen to the webcast of each event, please visit the Investor Presentation & Events page of Fortinet’s website at https://investor.fortinet.com/events-and-presentations. The schedule is subject to change.
About Fortinet (www.fortinet.com)
Fortinet (Nasdaq: FTNT) is a driving force in the evolution of cybersecurity and the convergence of networking and security. Our mission is to secure people, devices and data everywhere, and today we deliver cybersecurity everywhere our customers need it with the largest integrated portfolio of over 50 enterprise-grade products. Over one million lifetime customers trust Fortinet’s solutions, which are among the most deployed, most patented and most validated in the industry. The Fortinet Training Institute, one of the largest and broadest training programs in the industry, is dedicated to making cybersecurity training and new career opportunities available to everyone. Collaboration with esteemed organizations from both the public and private sectors, including Computer Emergency Response Teams (“CERTs”), government entities, and academia, is a fundamental aspect of Fortinet’s commitment to enhance cyber resilience globally. FortiGuard Labs, Fortinet’s elite threat intelligence and research organization, develops and utilizes leading-edge machine learning and AI technologies to provide customers with timely and consistently top-rated protection and actionable threat intelligence. Learn more at https://www.fortinet.com, the Fortinet Blog or FortiGuard Labs.