Which Is a Better Investment, EPAM Systems Inc or Fortinet Inc Stock?

By AAII Staff
September 08, 2026
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Sifting through countless of stocks in the IT Services industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in EPAM Systems, Inc., Fortinet or Inc. because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how EPAM Systems, Inc., Fortinet and Inc. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About EPAM Systems, Inc., Fortinet and Inc.

EPAM Systems, Inc. provides digital platform engineering and software development services worldwide. The company offers engineering services, including requirements analysis and platform selection, customization, cross-platform migration, implementation, and integration; cloud services for creating a roadmap to set and refine IT and business goals while identifying new and emerging opportunities leveraging cloud technologies; data, analytics, and artificial intelligence; customer experience; marketing; and cybersecurity. It also offers operation solutions comprising integrated engineering practices and smart automation services. In addition, the company offers software product and platform development services, which comprise product research, customer experience design and prototyping, program management, component design and integration, full lifecycle software testing, product deployment and end-user customization, performance tuning, product support and maintenance, managed services, as well as cross-platform migration and modernizing legacy platforms. The company has a collaboration with Wiz to help organizations turn cloud risk intelligence into continuous, AI-powered, and engineering-led remediation across complex multi-cloud environments. The company serves the financial services; consumer goods, retail, and travel; software and hi-tech; business information and media; life sciences and healthcare; and emerging vertical industries. EPAM Systems, Inc. was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Newtown, Pennsylvania.

Fortinet, Inc. provides cybersecurity and convergence of networking and security solutions worldwide. The company offers FortiOS, a unified operating system designed to address cybersecurity threats; FortiASIC application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)-based security processing units; FortiCloud, a private cloud software as a service platform; FortiAI, which provides a dual-layered defense across the Fortinet Security Fabric; FortiEndpoint, which converges secure connectivity, endpoint protection, and capabilities into a single agent; and OT Security, which protect the engineered systems that underpin infrastructure and supply chains. It also provides secure networking solutions that focus on the convergence of networking and security; network firewall solutions comprising FortiGate data centers, hyperscale, and distributed firewalls; wireless local area network solutions; and secure connectivity solutions. In addition, the company offers the Fortinet Unified Secure Access Service Edge solutions that include firewall, software-defined wide-area network, secure web gateway, cloud access services broker, data loss prevention, and zero trust network access; and web application firewalls, cloud network security with virtualized firewalls, cloud-native firewalls, cloud-native application protection, and code security. Further, it provides AI-driven security operation solutions, which include a suite of cybersecurity solutions, as well as FortiEDR, FortiXDR, FortiNDR, FortiSandbox, FortiDeceptor, FortiDLP, and FortiRecon. Additionally, the company offers FortiGuard Labs, a cybersecurity threat intelligence and research organization; FortiGuard and Other Security Services, a suite of AI-powered security capabilities that consists of FortiGuard application, content, device, NOC/SOC, and web security services; and FortiCare technical support services. Fortinet, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

Latest IT Services and EPAM Systems, Inc., Fortinet, Inc. Stock News

As of September 4, 2026, EPAM Systems, Inc. had a $6.0 billion market capitalization, compared to the IT Services median of $832.9 million. EPAM Systems, Inc.’s stock is NA in 2026, NA in the previous five trading days and down 30.37% in the past year.

Currently, EPAM Systems, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 15.8. EPAM Systems, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $5.6 billion with a 7.2% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 4.5%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $13.151 per share for the current fiscal year. EPAM Systems, Inc. does not currently pay a dividend.

Currently, Fortinet, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 55.2. Fortinet, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $7.5 billion with a 28.2% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 25.6%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $3.450 per share for the current fiscal year. Fortinet, Inc. does not currently pay a dividend.

How We Compare EPAM Systems, Inc., Fortinet and Inc. Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at EPAM Systems, Inc., Fortinet and Inc.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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EPAM Systems, Inc., Fortinet and Inc. Stock Value Grades

Company Ticker Value
EPAM Systems, Inc. EPAM B
Fortinet, Inc. FTNT F

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.

Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

EPAM Systems, Inc. has a Value Score of 80, which is Value. Fortinet, Inc. has a Value Score of 10, which is Ultra Expensive.

The Value Stock Winner: EPAM Systems, Inc.

As you can clearly see from the Value Grade breakdown above, EPAM Systems, Inc. is considered to have better value than Fortinet, Inc.. For investors who focus solely on a company’s valuation, EPAM Systems, Inc. could be a good stock to add to their portfolio. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

EPAM Systems, Inc., Fortinet and Inc.’s Quality Grades

Company Ticker Quality
EPAM Systems, Inc. EPAM A
Fortinet, Inc. FTNT A

Like the Value Grade, AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the percentile rank of key metrics. Specifically, the Quality Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and the F-Score.

The score is variable, meaning it can consider all eight measures or, should any of the eight measures not be valid, the remaining measures that are valid. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.

The Quality Score is used to assess the underlying “quality” of a particular stock. A higher-quality stock possesses traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. Backtesting of the Quality Grade shows that stocks with higher grades, on average, outperformed stocks with lower grades over the period of 1998 through 2019.

Stocks receive better grades (higher scores) for having higher scores for the quality subcomponents and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the subcomponents.

EPAM Systems, Inc. has a Quality Score of 95, which is Very Strong. Fortinet, Inc. has a Quality Score of 96, which is Very Strong.

The Quality Grade Winner: It’s a Tie!

Looking at the Quality Grade breakdown above, both EPAM Systems, Inc., Fortinet and Inc. have a grade of A. For investors who focus solely on a company’s overall quality, you will need to conduct further research into both companies to see if they are a good fit for your portfolio. As a good rule of thumb, you should always analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before choosing a company to invest in.

EPAM Systems, Inc., Fortinet and Inc.’s Estimate Revisions Grades

Company Ticker Earnings Estimate
EPAM Systems, Inc. EPAM B
Fortinet, Inc. FTNT B

Earnings estimate revisions scores consider the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, positive surprises beget further positive surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

Estimate revisions offer an indication of what analysts are thinking about the short-term prospects of a firm. Estimate revisions are based on the statistical significance of a firm’s last two quarterly earnings surprises and the percentage change in its consensus estimate for the current fiscal year over the past month and past three months.

EPAM Systems, Inc. has a Earnings Estimate Score of 67, which is Positive. Fortinet, Inc. has a Earnings Estimate Score of 75, which is Positive.

The Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade Winner: It’s a Tie!

Looking at the Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade breakdown above, both EPAM Systems, Inc., Fortinet and Inc. have a grade of B. For those focusing solely on a company’s estimate revisions, other financial metrics will need to be evaluated to determine whether EPAM Systems, Inc., Fortinet or Inc. is a better fit.

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Other EPAM Systems, Inc., Fortinet and Inc. Grades

In addition to Estimate Revisions, Value and Quality, A+ Investor also provides grades for Growth and Momentum.

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Momentum grades help uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming.

Growth investing builds on the idea that stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth outperform those of slower-growth companies. AAII measures growth through consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether EPAM Systems, Inc., Fortinet and Inc. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, EPAM Systems, Inc., Fortinet or Inc. Stock?

Overall, EPAM Systems, Inc. stock has a Value Score of 80, Estimate Revisions Score of 67 and Quality Score of 95.

Fortinet, Inc. stock has a Value Score of 10, Estimate Revisions Score of 75 and Quality Score of 96.

Comparing EPAM Systems, Inc., Fortinet and Inc.’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

Learn More About A+ Investor

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.



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