The cybersecurity vendor’s strong growth comes as Fortinet has been fostering ‘much more collaboration with channel partners,’ outgoing CFO Keith Jensen said during a call with analysts.
Fortinet is seeing a growth surge in its newer product lines including SASE and SecOps, in connection with the cybersecurity vendor’s moves to foster closer collaboration with solution providers, according to Fortinet CFO Keith Jensen.
The company reported fourth-quarter financial results Thursday, disclosing that its SASE (secure access service edge) and SecOps (security operations) businesses are now generating a combined $1.54 billion in annual recurring revenue, up 29 percent from the same period a year ago.
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Jensen (pictured), who also revealed his upcoming retirement plans, praised the efforts of Fortinet executives including his successor as CFO, Christiane Ohlgart, in bringing a bigger focus on key channel initiatives such as offering targeted incentives to partners.
“There’s just much more collaboration with channel partners today than I’ve ever seen before here,” Jensen said during the vendor’s quarterly call with analysts Thursday.
Jensen will be retiring May 15 after more than a decade at Fortinet. He will be succeeded by Ohlgart, a former IGEL Technology CFO who joined Fortinet just shy of a year ago as chief accounting officer.
For the fourth quarter, Fortinet reported that total revenue rose 17 percent from the same period of 2023 to reach $1.66 billion, surpassing the analyst consensus estimate of $1.6 billion.
During the quarter, Fortinet saw “very strong” growth in its “unified” SASE and SecOps businesses, Jensen said during the call with analysts.
The cybersecurity vendor disclosed that its ARR for SASE climbed 28 percent from a year ago to reach $1.12 billion. Fortinet’s ARR for its security operations offerings, meanwhile, rose 32 percent year-over-year to reach $422.4 million, the company said.
The vendor also continues to expect a major refresh opportunity ahead for its core firewall business, Jensen said.
“In the fourth quarter, we saw early upgrade movement [for firewalls] with large enterprises — both on buying plans and actual purchases,” he said. “We expect the momentum to build as we move into the second half of 2025 [and] get closer to the 2026 end-of-service dates.”
Fortinet’s stock price was up 9.2 percent to $114.43 a share in after-hours trading Thursday.
