Fortinet Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) and Bridgeline Digital Inc. (NASDAQ:BLIN) compete against each other in the Application Software sector. We will compare them and contrast their profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, earnings and valuation.
Earnings and Valuation
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Fortinet Inc. | 1.80B | 8.07 | 332.20M | 1.90 | 44.14 |
| Bridgeline Digital Inc. | 11.97M | 0.28 | 12.06M | -2.11 | 0.00 |
Table 1 shows gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation of the two companies.
Profitability
Table 2 has Fortinet Inc. and Bridgeline Digital Inc.’s return on equity, return on assets and net margins.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Fortinet Inc. | 18.46% | 12% | 3.5% |
| Bridgeline Digital Inc. | -100.75% | -200.3% | -98.7% |
Volatility and Risk
Fortinet Inc. is 8.00% less volatile than S&P 500 because the stock has a beta of 0.92. Bridgeline Digital Inc.’s 1.65 beta is the reason why it is 65.00% more volatile than S&P 500.
Liquidity
Fortinet Inc.’s Current Ratio is 1.9 while its Quick Ratio is 1.8. On the competitive side is, Bridgeline Digital Inc. which has a 1.7 Current Ratio and a 1.7 Quick Ratio. Fortinet Inc. is better positioned to pay off short and long-term obligations compared to Bridgeline Digital Inc.
Analyst Ratings
Fortinet Inc. and Bridgeline Digital Inc. Ratings and Recommendations are available on the next table.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Fortinet Inc. | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2.38 |
| Bridgeline Digital Inc. | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
Fortinet Inc.’s downside potential currently stands at -4.92% and an $81 average price target.
Institutional and Insider Ownership
Fortinet Inc. and Bridgeline Digital Inc. has shares held by institutional investors as follows: 77.1% and 18.2%. 11.2% are Fortinet Inc.’s share held by insiders. Comparatively, 7.48% are Bridgeline Digital Inc.’s share held by insiders.
Performance
Here are the Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Half Yearly, Yearly and YTD Performance of both pretenders.
| Performance (W) | Performance (M) | Performance (Q) | Performance (HY) | Performance (Y) | Performance (YTD) | |
| Fortinet Inc. | -3.72% | 9.47% | 14.01% | 1.59% | 69.3% | 19.01% |
| Bridgeline Digital Inc. | 0% | -12.62% | -34.34% | -74.19% | -87.51% | -0.52% |
For the past year Fortinet Inc. has 19.01% stronger performance while Bridgeline Digital Inc. has -0.52% weaker performance.
Summary
Fortinet Inc. beats on 12 of the 12 factors Bridgeline Digital Inc.
Fortinet, Inc. provides cybersecurity solutions for enterprises, service providers, and government organizations worldwide. The company offers FortiGate physical and software licenses that provide various security and networking functions, including firewall, intrusion prevention, anti-malware, virtual private network, application control, Web filtering, anti-spam, and wide area network acceleration; FortiManager product family to provide a central management solution for FortiGate products comprising software updates, configuration, policy settings, and security updates; and the FortiAnalyzer product family, which offers a single point of network log data collection. It also provides FortiAP secure wireless access points; FortiWeb, a Web application firewall; FortiMail email security; FortiDB database security appliances; FortiClient, an endpoint security software; and FortiSwitch secure switch connectivity products. In addition, the company provides FortiSandbox advanced threat protection solutions; FortiDDos and FortiDB database security appliances; and FortiSIEM family of products to provide a cloud-ready security information and event management (SIEM) solution for enterprises and service providers. Further, it offers security subscription, technical support, training, and professional services. The company was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
Bridgeline Digital, Inc. operates as a digital engagement company in the United States. The companyÂ’s iAPPS platform enables companies and developers to create Websites, Web applications, and online stores. It offers iAPPS Experience Manager, a marketing automation engine and content management system; iAPPS Content Manager that enables non-technical users to create, edit, and publish content via a browser-based interface; and iAPPS Commerce, an online B2B and B2C e-commerce solution, which allows users to manage domestic and international commerce initiatives. The company also provides iAPPS Marketier, an online marketing management solution that helps marketers drive to their sites through personalized and targeted marketing automation flows; and iAPPS Analyzer to manage, measure, and optimize Web properties by recording detailed events and mining data for statistical analysis. In addition, it offers iAPPS Social, a social media management solution that empowers customers to set up customized watch lists; and iAPPSds, a Web content management and e-commerce platform to multi-unit organizations and franchises. Further, the company provides digital strategy, Web design and development, usability engineering, information architecture, and search engine optimization services; co-location, application monitoring, emergency response, version control, load balancing, managed firewall security, and virus protection services; and shared, dedicated, and Software as a Service hosting services. It serves vertical markets, such as financial services, franchises/multi-unit organizations, retail brand names, health services and life sciences, technology, credit unions and regional banks, and associations and foundations through its direct sales force. The company was formerly known as Bridgeline Software, Inc. and changed its name to Bridgeline Digital, Inc. in March 2010. Bridgeline Digital, Inc. was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts.