Fortinet delivers dominant Q1 2020 financial results

Cybersecurity company Fortinet has today announced its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2020, indicating a very strong performance for Q1 2020 with almost every metric seeing improvement year-on-year.

Total revenue for Q1 2020 was US$576.9 million, an increase of 22.1% compared to $472.6 million for the prior-year period.

Fortinet's product revenue totalled $192.3 in Q1 2020, representing an increase of 18.2% on the $162.7 million for the same quarter of 2019.

Service revenue was $384.6 million for the first quarter of 2020, an increase of 24.1% compared to $309.9 for the same period last year.

"Our strong first-quarter performance is the result of strategic internal investments we made to deliver industry-leading products and services, expand into adjacent addressable markets, grow our global sales force and invest in the channel," says Fortinet founder, chairman and CEO Ken Xie.

Total billings were $667.8 million for the first quarter of 2020, an increase of 21.1% compared to $551.6 million for the same quarter of 2019.

Deferred revenue totalled $2.23 billion as of March 31 this year, increasing 26.1% when compared to the $1.77 recorded at the same time last year.

GAAP net income was $104.0 million for Q1 2020, which included $28.3 million from gains on intellectual property matter, net of tax. This can be compared to a GAAP net income of $58.8 million for the same quarter of 2019.

GAAP diluted net income per share was $0.60 for the first quarter of 2020, based on 174.2 million diluted weighted-average shares outstanding.

This can be compared to GAAP diluted net income per share of $0.34 for the same quarter of 2019, based on 174.8 million diluted weighted-average shares outstanding.

In Q1 2020, cash flow from operations was $319.4 million, rising 58% from the $201.3 million in the same quarter of 2019.

Free cash flow was $241.8 million during the first quarter of 2020, compared to $191.1 million for the same quarter of 2019.

"Fortinet is an important strategic partner to our customers," says Xie.

"Our proprietary FortiASIC security processing unit (SPU) can deliver 10 times the VPN throughput capacity of comparable competitor solutions to support teleworkers.

"This significant competitive advantage is one reason we believe we will continue to gain market share during a period of tougher economic conditions," Xie adds.

"We believe our industry-validated teleworker and secure SD-WAN offerings, along with our SPU-driven FortiGates, Security Fabric platform and hybrid- and multicloud offerings, provide companies with more cost-effective solutions across their entire digital infrastructure.