I simply analyzed the sales and profit growth of the 3 well-known cyber security companies and got Gemini to help me.
It may be of interest to several people who are considering investing in one of these companies.
Crowdstrike has had the strongest average revenue growth of the three companies in the last 5 years and has continued to do so in the last few quarters. $CRWD (+0,56%) However, Crowdstrike has not been consistently profitable in recent years, but has focused strongly on revenue growth and expanding its market share. There have been phases with losses (including the last 4 quarters) as the company has invested heavily in marketing and research & development in order to maintain its technology leadership.
P/E ratio negative.
Fortinet also shows very strong and continuous sales growth. $FTNT (+0,82%) Fortinet has the most stable and reliable profit development of the three. Fortinet has achieved constant profits in recent years and has continuously increased them. The company has been profitable for a long time and has a high operating margin. In contrast to Crowdstrike and Palo Alto Networks, which focus more on software and subscriptions, Fortinet also generates a significant portion of its revenue from the sale of hardware products.
P/E RATIO 31
Palo Alto Networks is experiencing robust revenue growth, driven primarily by the transition from a hardware provider to a subscription provider.
$PANW (+0,57%) Palo Alto Networks had dynamic earnings growth, but with a less stable development than Fortinet. In the last 5 quarters, profit has gradually decreased. Growth is often driven by high investments in the acquisition of other companies and the development of new products.
P/E RATIO 121
Here are the figures for 2024, which already give a good insight.
Fortinet. 5.96 billion revenue, 1.74 billion profit
Crowdstrike 3.95 bn sales, 19 m loss
Palo Alto. 9.22 billion revenue, 1.13 billion profit
I have now left out the topic of AI.
Platforms in the cyber sector that have access to large data sets are the biggest winners from AI. And Crowdstrike will be ahead (according to Jefferies). Palo Alto Networks will also be behind.
For me, however, Fortinet would be the favorite as it has been generating profits for a long time and margins and revenues are growing consistently.
