Those who invested in Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) five years ago are up 312%

Simply Wall St · 01/20 12:13

We think all investors should try to buy and hold high quality multi-year winners. While the best companies are hard to find, but they can generate massive returns over long periods. Don't believe it? Then look at the Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) share price. It's 312% higher than it was five years ago. And this is just one example of the epic gains achieved by some long term investors. On top of that, the share price is up 14% in about a quarter.

With that in mind, it's worth seeing if the company's underlying fundamentals have been the driver of long term performance, or if there are some discrepancies.

View our latest analysis for Fortinet

While the efficient markets hypothesis continues to be taught by some, it has been proven that markets are over-reactive dynamic systems, and investors are not always rational. One imperfect but simple way to consider how the market perception of a company has shifted is to compare the change in the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price movement.

Over half a decade, Fortinet managed to grow its earnings per share at 34% a year. That makes the EPS growth particularly close to the yearly share price growth of 33%. This indicates that investor sentiment towards the company has not changed a great deal. In fact, the share price seems to largely reflect the EPS growth.

You can see below how EPS has changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

earnings-per-share-growth
NasdaqGS:FTNT Earnings Per Share Growth January 20th 2025

It is of course excellent to see how Fortinet has grown profits over the years, but the future is more important for shareholders. It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on how its financial position has changed over time.

A Different Perspective

We're pleased to report that Fortinet shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 50% over one year. Since the one-year TSR is better than the five-year TSR (the latter coming in at 33% per year), it would seem that the stock's performance has improved in recent times. In the best case scenario, this may hint at some real business momentum, implying that now could be a great time to delve deeper. Before forming an opinion on Fortinet you might want to consider these 3 valuation metrics.

Of course Fortinet may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of growth stocks.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on American exchanges.