Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Now Rated “Hold” by Sell-Side Analysts

Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the forty-one analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, twenty-four have assigned a hold recommendation, ten have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $147.94.

Several analysts have recently issued reports on FTNT shares. Yorkville Ives initiated coverage on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, October 6th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $225.00 price target on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities reduced their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $195.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, October 10th. Mizuho set a $118.00 target price on Fortinet in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Fortinet from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 8th.

Key Headlines Impacting Fortinet

Here are the key news stories impacting Fortinet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Fortinet reported third-quarter revenue of approximately $2.08 billion, up 20.5% year over year, and adjusted EPS of $0.91, exceeding consensus estimates. Billings increased 29%, while operating margins reached a record. Fortinet Q3 Earnings and Revenues Beat Estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Management raised full-year 2026 guidance to $8.1 billion-$8.2 billion in revenue and $3.54-$3.58 in EPS. Fourth-quarter EPS guidance of $0.93-$0.95 also exceeds the consensus estimate of $0.86. Fortinet Raises Guidance
• Positive Sentiment: The board authorized an additional $1.2 billion in share repurchases, and quarterly free cash flow was approximately $865 million. Analysts at TD Cowen, Rosenblatt and Truist retained bullish ratings despite lowering their price targets. Fortinet Adds to Buyback Program
• Neutral Sentiment: Fortinet is technically oversold after a sharp multi-week decline, while rising earnings estimates could support a rebound. However, the technical signal does not resolve concerns about the company’s growth mix. Fortinet May See a Trend Reversal
• Negative Sentiment: Service revenue grew only 13%, versus 37% growth in product revenue. Investors are concerned that hardware sales tied to AI infrastructure are not converting into recurring services quickly enough, reducing near-term revenue visibility. The Real Reason Fortinet Dropped
• Negative Sentiment: Management lowered its services outlook, while fourth-quarter revenue guidance implies growth deceleration from the third quarter. Normalizing pricing benefits, higher inventory costs and longer component lead times added to investor concerns.
• Negative Sentiment: Wells Fargo cut its price target to $115 and assigned an underweight rating; Susquehanna lowered its target to $145 and rated the shares neutral. Other firms, including Bank of America, Citi, Barclays and Scotiabank, also reduced targets or ratings. Analysts Cut Fortinet Forecasts
• Negative Sentiment: The broader technology and cybersecurity sell-off is amplifying the reaction, despite a major cryptocurrency hack highlighting demand for digital security. Investors are also questioning whether Fortinet’s premium valuation remains justified as growth slows.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO John Whittle sold 2,835 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.74, for a total transaction of $478,377.90. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 96,987 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,365,586.38. This represents a 2.84% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 17.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Fortinet during the second quarter valued at approximately $9,561,650,000. First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings in Fortinet by 45.5% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 11,506,173 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $940,284,000 after acquiring an additional 3,598,487 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in Fortinet by 87.4% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,651,024 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $788,682,000 after purchasing an additional 4,500,194 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,432,842,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $979,062,000. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Price Performance

FTNT stock opened at $136.08 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $171.34 and a 200-day moving average of $128.28. Fortinet has a fifty-two week low of $73.55 and a fifty-two week high of $197.13. The company has a market capitalization of $99.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.18, a PEG ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.40.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 28th. The software maker reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $2.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.06 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 152.72% and a net margin of 28.96%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 20.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.74 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Fortinet will post 3.19 earnings per share for the current year.

About Fortinet

Fortinet, Inc develops cybersecurity products and services designed to protect networks, endpoints, applications, cloud environments and operational technology systems. The company’s portfolio includes next-generation firewalls, secure networking products, endpoint security, web application security, email security, identity and access solutions, and security information and event management tools.

Its product offerings include FortiGate network security appliances and cloud-based firewalls, along with FortiSwitch, FortiAP and FortiExtender solutions for secure connectivity.