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

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Saturday,Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on FTNT. Barclays set a $190.00 price target on Fortinet and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Truist Financial set a $183.00 price objective on Fortinet and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $160.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $190.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued a “positive” rating and set a $136.00 target price (up from $133.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating, nineteen have given a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $152.79.

Fortinet Stock Performance

FTNT opened at $173.46 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $127.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 61.08, a PEG ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.06. Fortinet has a 1-year low of $73.55 and a 1-year high of $181.37. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $161.46 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $132.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.19.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software maker reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.15. Fortinet had a net margin of 28.17% and a return on equity of 191.54%. The firm had revenue of $2.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.89 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.64 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Fortinet has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.410-3.470 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.830-0.870 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 3.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,482 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.66, for a total transaction of $26,266,662.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 52,972,372 shares in the company, valued at $8,616,486,029.52. This trade represents a 0.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, COO John Whittle sold 2,835 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.74, for a total value of $478,377.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 96,987 shares in the company, valued at $16,365,586.38. This trade represents a 2.84% 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 have sold a total of 221,303 shares of company stock worth $36,164,034 in the last 90 days. 17.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Fortinet during the second quarter valued at $492,000. Eurizon Capital SGR S.p.A. purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth $14,638,000. Westerkirk Capital Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 41.9% in the 4th quarter. Westerkirk Capital Inc. now owns 52,500 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $4,169,000 after buying an additional 15,500 shares in the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 21.4% in the 1st quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 75,491 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $6,169,000 after buying an additional 13,294 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vista Investment Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 53.1% in the 2nd quarter. Vista Investment Partners LLC now owns 49,058 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $7,537,000 after buying an additional 17,018 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Fortinet

Fortinet, Inc develops cybersecurity products and services designed to protect enterprise, small and midsize business, service provider, and government networks. Its portfolio covers network security, endpoint protection, cloud security, secure access service edge (SASE), security operations, and zero-trust access.

The company’s offerings include FortiGate next-generation firewalls, FortiSwitch secure networking switches, FortiAP wireless access points, FortiClient endpoint security, and FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer management and analytics tools.