Fortinet (FTNT) Competitors

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) and ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) are both large-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, risk, valuation, profitability, community ranking, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and institutional ownership.

Do analysts prefer FTNT or NOW?

Fortinet currently has a consensus target price of $96.33, indicating a potential downside of 0.89%. ServiceNow has a consensus target price of $1,090.72, indicating a potential downside of 0.62%. Given ServiceNow's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe ServiceNow is more favorable than Fortinet.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Fortinet	1 Sell rating(s)	17 Hold rating(s)	13 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.44
ServiceNow	1 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	24 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.90

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer FTNT or NOW?

ServiceNow received 73 more outperform votes than Fortinet when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 75.19% of users gave ServiceNow an outperform vote while only 66.16% of users gave Fortinet an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Fortinet	Outperform Votes 1306 66.16%	Underperform Votes 668 33.84%
ServiceNow	Outperform Votes 1379 75.19%	Underperform Votes 455 24.81%

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, FTNT or NOW?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Fortinet	$5.30B	14.04	$1.15B	$1.98	49.09
ServiceNow	$8.97B	25.20	$1.73B	$6.43	170.69

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in FTNT or NOW?

83.7% of Fortinet shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.2% of ServiceNow shares are owned by institutional investors. 18.0% of Fortinet shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of ServiceNow shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media favor FTNT or NOW?

In the previous week, ServiceNow had 26 more articles in the media than Fortinet. MarketBeat recorded 76 mentions for ServiceNow and 50 mentions for Fortinet. ServiceNow's average media sentiment score of 1.24 beat Fortinet's score of 1.01 indicating that ServiceNow is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Fortinet	34 Very Positive mention(s)	6 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
ServiceNow	54 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	12 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is FTNT or NOW more profitable?

Fortinet has a net margin of 26.79% compared to ServiceNow's net margin of 12.77%. Fortinet's return on equity of 973.30% beat ServiceNow's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Fortinet	26.79%	973.30%	18.21%
ServiceNow	12.77%	16.03%	7.54%

Which has more volatility & risk, FTNT or NOW?

Fortinet has a beta of 1, suggesting that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, ServiceNow has a beta of 0.99, suggesting that its stock price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

ServiceNow beats Fortinet on 14 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.