Shares in Fortinet Inc. rose in late trading after the cybersecurity company beat estimates in its latest quarterly earnings report.

For the quarter ended March 31, Fortinet reported a profit before costs such as stock compensation of $155.1 million, or 94 cents per share, up from $164.2 million, or 81 cents per share, in the same quarter of 2021. Revenue rose 34%, to $954.8 million. Analysts had expected an adjusted profit of 80 cents per share on revenue of $885 million.

The figures for Fortinet were up across the board. Product revenue grew to $371 million in the quarter, up 54% year-over-year, while service revenue came in a $583.3 million, up 24%. Total billings rose 36%, to $1.16 billion, and deferred revenue as of the end of March rose 33%, to $3.66 billion.

Bookings jumped 50% from a year ago, to $1.28 billion, with a backlog of $278.3 million.

“We delivered better-than-expected first-quarter revenue growth of 34% year-over-year, driven by record quarterly product revenue growth of 54% year-over-year,” Ken Xie, founder and chief executive of Fortinet (pictured), said in a statement. “The outstanding results we achieved reflect exceptionally strong demand across our broad portfolio of cybersecurity and networking solutions as our teams skillfully navigated the challenging supply chain environment.”

Looking forward, Fortinet predicted an adjusted profit of $1.05 to $1.10 in its second quarter on revenue of $1.005 billion to $1.035 billion. Analysts were predicting a profit of $1.13 per share on revenue of $1.01 billion.

For the full fiscal year 2022, Fortinet is now predicting an adjusted profit of $5 to $5.15 a share on revenue of $4.35 billion to $4.4 billion.

After releasing its quarterly data, Xie said that Fortinet sees operational technology as its main growth opportunity in the company’s earnings call.

“We definitely see OT as a bigger market going forward, probably bigger than SD-WAN,” Bank Info Security reported Xie saying on the call. “The growth is very very strong. We do see a lot of potential and we also have invested a lot in this area to meet the demand.”

Despite slightly missing on its outlook, investors still liked the numbers. Shares in Fortinet rose almost 4% after the bell.

Xie spoke (below) with Lisa Martin, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, in September, on a partnership with Linksys Inc. that underscored the current state of cybersecurity and the shift to remote working.

“Today’s network can just give you the connectivity and speed,” Xie said in the interview. “With security-driven networking, you can make a networking decision based on the security function, based on different applications, content, users, devices or locations. We see that as a huge demand right now.”

Photo: SiliconANGLE