Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Keeps “Hold” Rating at Needham & Company LLC

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT)‘s stock had its “hold” rating reaffirmed by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the company. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday. Wolfe Research set a $175.00 price target on Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $225.00 price objective (up from $215.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, October 13th. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating, twenty-three have given a Hold rating and six have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $156.47.

Fortinet Trading Down 5.9%

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $174.08 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $127.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 61.30, a P/E/G ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 1.03. Fortinet has a 1 year low of $73.55 and a 1 year high of $197.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $171.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $127.69.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 28th. The software maker reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $2.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.06 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 191.54% and a net margin of 28.17%. The company’s revenue was up 20.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.74 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 3.10 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,482 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.66, for a total value of $26,266,662.12. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 52,972,372 shares in the company, valued at $8,616,486,029.52. The trade was a 0.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 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 53,865 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.44, for a total value of $8,911,425.60. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 96,987 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,045,529.28. The trade was a 35.71% decrease in their position. 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 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 17.60% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 2nd quarter valued at $9,561,650,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,432,842,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in Fortinet during the second quarter worth $979,062,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Fortinet by 87.4% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,651,024 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $788,682,000 after acquiring an additional 4,500,194 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in Fortinet in the second quarter worth $656,852,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortinet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Fortinet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Fortinet reported third-quarter revenue of $2.08 billion, up approximately 20% year over year, while non-GAAP EPS of $0.91 exceeded the $0.86 consensus estimate. Product revenue rose 37% to $765 million, billings increased 29% to $2.34 billion, and operating margins remained strong. Fortinet Reports Strong Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results
• Positive Sentiment: Management raised 2026 revenue guidance and projected 2026 billings of $9.568 billion to $9.718 billion, citing demand for AI-infrastructure security. The company also increased its share-repurchase authorization by $1.2 billion, leaving $2 billion available for buybacks. Fortinet Outlines 2026 Billings and Raises Guidance
• Neutral Sentiment: The fourth-quarter adjusted EPS outlook of $0.93 to $0.95 was provided alongside the broader guidance increase, but investors judged the forecast against particularly high expectations after FTNT’s strong run and premium valuation.
• Negative Sentiment: Analysts and investors viewed billings growth and the forward outlook as insufficient relative to lofty expectations. Analysts subsequently cut price targets, contributing to the post-earnings selloff despite the quarterly beat. Fortinet Stock Sinks Despite Q3 Beat
• Negative Sentiment: Concerns that growth is slowing in one of Fortinet’s business segments, combined with broader fears that artificial intelligence could disrupt software companies, pressured cybersecurity and software stocks broadly. Software Stocks Slide as Fortinet and ServiceNow Miss Expectations

Fortinet Company Profile

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.