Fortinet Inc. FTNT is set to report second-quarter 2017 results on Jul 26. Last quarter, the company posted a remarkable positive earnings surprise of 250%. Notably, Fortinet has outperformed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the trailing four quarters, with an impressive average positive earnings surprise of 139.6%.Let's see how things are shaping up for this announcement.Factors to ConsiderFortinet’s network security solutions include firewall, VPN, application control, antivirus, intrusion prevention, web filtering, anti-spam and WAN acceleration.For the last three quarters, there has been a slowdown in Fortinet’s sales. The company observed that organizations have been breaking their cybersecurity investment plans into phases and implementing the same over longer periods of time instead of making a single large investment. Therefore, the above mentioned factor is likely to affect the to-be-reported quarter revenues.Nonetheless, we opine that Fortinet’s initiative to change its business model to subscription-based service provider will continue to drive the company’s bottom-line results. Subscription-based service is a high gross margin business (approximately 80%) compared with the hardware-centric model.Notably, the company generates over 50% of the total revenue from these services, which helped it generate a 70 basis points gross margin expansion in first-quarter 2017. We believe that this strategy will continue to improve the company’s bottom-line performances as well.Fortinet, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise Fortinet, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise | Fortinet, Inc. QuoteEarnings WhispersOur proven model does not conclusively show that Fortinet will likely beat estimates this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. That is not the case here as you will see below.Zacks ESP: Both the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate are pegged at 8 cents. Hence, the difference is 0.00%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.Zacks Rank: Fortinet carries a Zacks Rank #3. Though a Zacks Rank #1, 2 or 3 increases the predictive power of ESP, the company’s ESP of 0.00% makes surprise prediction difficult.We caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 and 5 (Sell rated) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.Stocks to ConsiderHere are a couple of stocks, which you may consider as our model shows that they have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat in their upcoming releases:Cypress Semiconductor Corporation CY, with an Earnings ESP of +11.11% and a Zacks Rank #1. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.Expedia, Inc. EXPE, with an Earnings ESP of +16.67%, and a Zacks Rank #2.PayPal Holdings, Inc. PYPL, with an Earnings ESP of +3.13% and a Zacks Rank #2.More Stock News: This Is Bigger than the iPhone!It could become the mother of all technological revolutions. Apple sold a mere 1 billion iPhones in 10 years but a new breakthrough is expected to generate more than 27 billion devices in just 3 years, creating a $1.7 trillion market.Zacks has just released a Special Report that spotlights this fast-emerging phenomenon and 6 tickers for taking advantage of it. If you don't buy now, you may kick yourself in 2020. Click here for the 6 trades >>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Fortinet, Inc. (FTNT): Free Stock Analysis Report Expedia, Inc. (EXPE): Free Stock Analysis Report PayPal Holdings, Inc. (PYPL): Free Stock Analysis Report Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (CY): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research