Financial Comparison: Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) & Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS)

Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) and Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) are both technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, profitability and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares Progress Software and Fortinet’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Progress Software	8.87%	43.07%	8.78%
Fortinet	28.17%	191.54%	21.35%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Progress Software and Fortinet, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Progress Software	0	2	5	0	2.71
Fortinet	5	20	9	2	2.22

Progress Software presently has a consensus target price of $52.17, indicating a potential upside of 16.94%. Fortinet has a consensus target price of $150.91, indicating a potential downside of 3.49%. Given Progress Software’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Progress Software is more favorable than Fortinet.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

83.7% of Fortinet shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.1% of Progress Software shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 17.6% of Fortinet shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Progress Software and Fortinet”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Progress Software	$977.83 million	1.87	$73.13 million	$2.06	21.66
Fortinet	$6.80 billion	16.87	$1.85 billion	$2.84	55.06

Fortinet has higher revenue and earnings than Progress Software. Progress Software is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Fortinet, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

Progress Software has a beta of 0.82, indicating that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Fortinet has a beta of 1.06, indicating that its stock price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Fortinet beats Progress Software on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Progress Software

Progress Software Corporation develops, deploys, and manages business applications in the United States and internationally. The company offers OpenEdge, an application development platform for running business-critical applications; Chef, a DevOps/DevSecOps automation software; Developer Tools that consists of software development tooling collection, including .NET and JavaScript UI components for web, desktop and mobile applications, reporting and report management tools, and automated testing and mocking tools; Kemp LoadMaster, an application delivery and security product offering cloud-native, and virtual and hardware load balancers; and Sitefinity, a digital experience platform foundation delivering intelligent and ROI-driving tools for marketers. It also provides MOVEit, a managed file transfer software for managing and controlling the movement of sensitive files and securing them both at-rest and in-transit; DataDirect, a secure data connectivity tools for Relational, NoSQL, Big Data and SaaS data sources; WhatsUp Gold, a network infrastructure monitoring software providing complete visibility of all network devices, servers, virtual machines, and cloud and wireless environments to find and fix network problems; Flowmon, a network security and visibility product with automated response across hybrid cloud ecosystems; Corticon, a decision automation platform to transform user experiences by streamlining and automating complex business rules; MarkLogic, a data agility platform to connect data and metadata; and Semaphore, a Semantic AI platform. The company offers project management, implementation, custom software development, programming, and other services, as well as web-enable applications; and training services. It sells its products to end users, independent software vendors, original equipment manufacturers, system integrators, value added resellers, and distributors. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts.

About Fortinet

Fortinet, Inc. provides cybersecurity and convergence of networking and security solutions worldwide. It offers secure networking solutions focus on the convergence of networking and security; network firewall solutions that consist of FortiGate data centers, hyperscale, and distributed firewalls, as well as encrypted applications; wireless LAN solutions; and secure connectivity solutions, including FortiSwitch secure ethernet switches, FortiAP wireless local area network access points, FortiExtender 5G connectivity gateways, and other products. The company also provides the Fortinet Unified SASE solutions that include firewall, SD-WAN, Secure web gateway, cloud access services broker, data loss prevention, zero trust network access, and cloud security, including web application firewalls, virtualized firewalls, and cloud-native firewalls. In addition, it offers security operations solutions comprising FortiAI generative AI assistant, FortiSIEM security information and event management, FortiSOAR security orchestration, automation and response, FortiEDR endpoint detection and response, FortiXDR extended detection and response, FortiMDR managed detection and response service, FortiNDR network detection and response, FortiRecon digital risk protection, FortiDeceptor deception technology, FortiGuard SoCaaS, FortiSandbox sandboxing, FortiGuard incident response, and other products. Further, the company offers FortiGuard security services consisting of FortiGuard application security, content security, device security, NOC/SOC security, and web security services; FortiCare technical support services; and training services to customers and channel partners, as well as operates a FortiGuard Lab, a cybersecurity threat intelligence and research organization. It serves enterprise, communication and security service providers, government organizations, and small and medium-sized businesses. The company was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.