Will Fortinet Stock Gain on Cybersecurity Demand and Education Push?

Fortinet FTNT is drawing renewed investor attention after unveiling a free Technical High School Cybersecurity Curriculum, a move that broadens its footprint in workforce development while reinforcing the company's long-term demand pipeline for cybersecurity talent and products alike. 

Delivered through the Fortinet Training Institute's Security Awareness and Training Service, the initiative offers two full-year courses, Cybersecurity 1: Foundations and Cybersecurity 2: Fundamentals, spanning roughly 180 days and 145 hours each. The standards-aligned program covers networking, cryptography, endpoint security and risk management, and is already being piloted by Chicago Public Schools. 

By equipping the next generation of cyber defenders at no cost to districts, Fortinet strengthens its brand visibility among educators and future IT professionals, a strategy that has historically supported longer-term platform adoption.

The education push follows closely on a string of technology advancements strengthening Fortinet's AI security portfolio. In August, the company acquired Virtue AI to bolster agentic red-teaming, runtime protection and continuous validation for AI models and autonomous agents, complementing its existing FortiAIGate offering. This builds on the earlier launch of FortiSOC, a unified, cloud-delivered security operations platform powered by agentic AI, and FortiOS 8.0, which added AI-driven security, next-generation SASE and quantum-safe capabilities across its Security Fabric.

This announcement lands on the heels of a robust second-quarter 2026 performance that underscores accelerating cybersecurity demand. Revenues climbed 26% year over year to $2.05 billion, while billings surged 33% to $2.37 billion. Product revenues jumped 52% to $773 million, fueled by FortiGate unit growth tied to AI-workload and OT security needs, and the SASE Firewall business grew 34% to surpass $2 billion. Profitability metrics were equally strong, with non-GAAP operating margin hitting a second-quarter record of 38% and free cash flow more than tripling year over year to $966 million. Non-GAAP EPS rose 41% to $0.90, comfortably topping the company's own guidance range.

Buoyed by this momentum, Fortinet raised its full-year 2026 outlook, projecting revenues of $8.02-$8.18 billion and non-GAAP EPS of $3.41-$3.47. With billings acceleration, record margins and a widening talent pipeline through education initiatives, Fortinet appears well-positioned to sustain its growth trajectory into the back half of 2026.

CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks Post Similar Demand Trends

Fortinet's growth is echoed by peers CrowdStrike CRWD and Palo Alto Networks PANW, both of which have reported accelerating demand tied to AI-driven security needs. CrowdStrike's most recent quarter showed revenues up 26% year over year to $1.47 billion, prompting a raised full-year forecast near $6 billion, while Palo Alto Networks guided fiscal fourth-quarter revenues of $3.345-$3.355 billion, up roughly 32% year over year, with next-generation security ARR growth of 59-60%. Unlike Fortinet's education-focused initiative, neither CrowdStrike nor Palo Alto Networks has announced a comparable high-school curriculum, though both continue to expand platform consolidation strategies to capture broader enterprise security budgets.

FTNT’s Share Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

Fortinet shares have gained 115.3% in the year-to-date period, outperforming the Zacks Security industry and the broader Computer and Technology sector’s growth of 90% and 16.8%, respectively.

FTNT’s Price Performance

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

From a valuation standpoint, FTNT appears overvalued, trading at a forward 12-month price-to-earnings ratio of 46.59, higher than the sector's average of 20.65. The company carries a Value Score of F.

FTNT’s Valuation

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Fortinet’s earnings is pegged at $3.40 per share for 2026, which implies year-over-year growth of 23.19%.

Fortinet currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Research Chief Names "Single Best Pick to Double"

From thousands of stocks, 5 Zacks experts each have chosen their favorite to skyrocket +100% or more in months to come. From those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian hand-picks one to have the most explosive upside of all.

This company targets millennial and Gen Z audiences, generating nearly $1 billion in revenue last quarter alone. A recent pullback makes now an ideal time to jump aboard. Of course, all our elite picks aren’t winners but this one could far surpass earlier Zacks’ Stocks Set to Double like Nano-X Imaging which shot up +129.6% in little more than 9 months.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research