Fortinet vs CrowdStrike after the latest earnings

Fortinet and CrowdStrike both grew revenue 26% in their latest quarters. Fortinet reported $966M in free cash flow on $2.05B of revenue. CrowdStrike reported $377M on $1.47B. Stock comp was 3.9% of revenue at Fortinet and 25.6% at CrowdStrike. At Friday’s close, Fortinet traded around 47x forward earnings. CrowdStrike was near 155x. [Oak Research](https://preview.redd.it/fhjqjstx5cmh1.png?width=1456&format=png&auto=webp&s=0b9a19271c87ce1694bf7cafd28570d986390b0b) Fortinet has more than doubled since March 3, so 47x isn’t cheap. Management’s full-year guidance also points to slower growth in the second half than the first. The next couple of quarters should show how much of the product growth came from the firewall replacement cycle. If that fades before the software side picks up, $166 gets hard to defend. Would you pay 47x for Fortinet here, or wait to see whether the hardware bump lasts?