Fortinet lifts outlook as SASE growth, USD $1bn buyback

Fortinet posted double-digit revenue and billings growth for the fourth quarter and full year 2025, and expanded its share repurchase authorisation by USD $1 billion.

Fourth-quarter revenue rose 15 per cent year on year to USD $1.91 billion. Product revenue increased 20 per cent to USD $691 million, while billings grew 18 per cent to USD $2.37 billion.

For the full year, revenue climbed 14 per cent to USD $6.80 billion. Product revenue rose 16 per cent to USD $2.22 billion and billings increased 16 per cent to USD $7.55 billion. Free cash flow totalled USD $2.21 billion.

Operating profitability also improved. GAAP operating margin was 33 per cent in the fourth quarter and 31 per cent for the full year. Non-GAAP operating margin was 37 per cent for the quarter and 35 per cent for the year.

SASE and SecOps

Fortinet highlighted faster growth in areas it has emphasised in recent quarters. Unified SASE billings grew 40 per cent in the fourth quarter, while unified SASE and SecOps billings grew 24 per cent for the full year.

Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ken Xie pointed to broad-based demand across the product set, with billings above the company's guidance range.

"We are pleased with our strong finish to the year, highlighted by an excellent fourth quarter driven by broad-based demand across our portfolio, which drove billings above the high end of our guidance," Xie said.

Fortinet has positioned its strategy around tighter integration between networking and security, with a focus on secure access service edge and security operations. Xie also cited market share in firewalls and plans to extend that position into SASE.

"We continue to execute our strategy by accelerating our investments in high-growth Unified SASE and Security Operations markets, delivering strong momentum while further strengthening our Secure Networking leadership," Xie said.

He also pointed to Fortinet's position in firewalls as a base for expansion into adjacent segments.

"As the number one firewall leader with a 55 per cent unit market share, Fortinet is well-positioned to extend that leadership into SASE, driven by our rapidly expanding SASE adoption and growing customer demand," Xie said.

Fortinet said its FortiSASE product uses the FortiOS operating system and supports both sovereign and public deployments.

"Our easy-to-adopt FortiSASE solution, powered by our single FortiOS operating system, supports both sovereign and public deployments, delivering high performance with significantly lower total cost of ownership than the competition," Xie said.

Business updates

Recent product and partner announcements included an integrated offering with Nvidia. The work embeds FortiGate VM on BlueField-3 DPUs, which Fortinet described as an isolated infrastructure acceleration approach for an AI Factory. The embedded configuration is designed to provide firewalling, segmentation and policy enforcement in the infrastructure.

Fortinet also pointed to recent industry recognition. It was named a Gartner Peer Insights Customers' Choice for Security Service Edge for the third consecutive year and was named Google's inaugural Google Unified Security Recommended partner for network protection, citing FortiSASE and FortiGate NGFW on Google Cloud. The company also referenced a 2025 Red Dot Product Design Award for its FortiGate Rugged series.

Buyback and outlook

Fortinet's board authorised an additional USD $1.0 billion for share repurchases, lifting the total authorisation to up to USD $10.25 billion through 28 February 2027. As of 4 February 2026, about USD $1.38 billion remained available under the programme, including the latest increase.

Repurchases may occur through privately negotiated transactions or open-market transactions, including under trading plans aligned with Rule 10b5-1 and Rule 10b-18. Fortinet noted the programme may be suspended at its discretion, and that the pace of buybacks will depend on factors such as share price, market conditions and alternative investment opportunities.

For the first quarter of 2026, Fortinet forecast revenue of USD $1.700 billion to USD $1.760 billion and billings of USD $1.770 billion to USD $1.870 billion. It guided to a non-GAAP gross margin of 80.0 per cent to 81.0 per cent and a non-GAAP operating margin of 30.0 per cent to 32.0 per cent. It forecast diluted non-GAAP net income per share of USD $0.59 to USD $0.63, assuming a non-GAAP effective tax rate of 18 per cent and a diluted share count of 746 million to 750 million.

For fiscal year 2026, Fortinet forecast revenue of USD $7.500 billion to USD $7.700 billion, including service revenue of USD $5.050 billion to USD $5.150 billion, and billings of USD $8.400 billion to USD $8.600 billion. It projected a non-GAAP gross margin of 79.0 per cent to 81.0 per cent and a non-GAAP operating margin of 33.0 per cent to 36.0 per cent. It forecast diluted non-GAAP net income per share of USD $2.94 to USD $3.00, based on an 18 per cent non-GAAP effective tax rate and a diluted share count of 747 million to 753 million.