Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Lowered to Hold Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Sunday.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Arete Research set a $104.00 price target on shares of Fortinet and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and set a $215.00 price objective (up from $160.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Truist Financial set a $183.00 target price on Fortinet and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, William Blair reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating, twenty-four have assigned a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $123.61.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of FTNT opened at $152.37 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 1.07. Fortinet has a 1 year low of $70.12 and a 1 year high of $170.35. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $148.02 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $106.65. The firm has a market cap of $111.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.14 and a beta of 1.09.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The software maker reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.20. Fortinet had a net margin of 27.49% and a return on equity of 160.08%. The firm had revenue of $1.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.73 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.58 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Fortinet has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.720-0.760 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.160 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Fortinet will post 2.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other news, COO John Whittle sold 146,015 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.41, for a total value of $18,749,786.15. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 94,724 shares in the company, valued at $12,163,508.84. The trade was a 60.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 160,632 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.58, for a total transaction of $23,384,806.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 52,972,372 shares in the company, valued at $7,711,717,915.76. This represents a 0.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 318,387 shares of company stock worth $43,403,063 over the last 90 days. 17.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,152,917,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in Fortinet by 87.4% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,651,024 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $788,682,000 after buying an additional 4,500,194 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in Fortinet by 45.5% in the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 11,506,173 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $940,284,000 after buying an additional 3,598,487 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in Fortinet by 38.9% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 7,730,954 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $613,915,000 after buying an additional 2,166,396 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Fortinet by 76.2% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,109,016 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $326,297,000 after buying an additional 1,777,115 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Fortinet

Fortinet, Inc (NASDAQ: FTNT) is a multinational cybersecurity company that develops and delivers integrated security solutions for enterprise, service provider and government customers worldwide. Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, the company was co‑founded by Ken Xie and Michael Xie. Ken Xie serves as chairman and chief executive officer, and the company operates through a global sales, channel and services organization to support customers across the Americas, EMEA and Asia‑Pacific.

Fortinet’s product portfolio centers on network security appliances and software, with its FortiGate next‑generation firewalls and the FortiOS operating system forming a core platform.