Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the thirty-one brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, twenty-two have issued a hold recommendation, five have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $89.4231.

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Robert W. Baird set a $90.00 target price on Fortinet in a report on Friday, February 6th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Mizuho increased their price target on Fortinet from $72.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Scotiabank lowered shares of Fortinet from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $85.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $83.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 6th.

Fortinet Stock Down 4.5%

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $81.69 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $80.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $81.71. Fortinet has a 1 year low of $70.12 and a 1 year high of $114.82. The firm has a market cap of $60.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.62, a PEG ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.17.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The software maker reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 124.21% and a net margin of 27.26%.The company had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.86 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.74 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 14.8% on a year-over-year basis. Fortinet has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 0.590-0.630 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 2.940-3.000 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 175,737 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.42, for a total transaction of $14,308,506.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 51,396,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,184,693,666.70. This trade represents a 0.34% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 343,106 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.42, for a total value of $27,935,690.52. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 10,210,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $831,321,160.44. The trade was a 3.25% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Fortinet in the second quarter worth $1,640,900,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Fortinet by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 75,581,275 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $6,354,874,000 after purchasing an additional 2,894,355 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 38.9% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 7,730,954 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $613,915,000 after acquiring an additional 2,166,396 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP grew its position in Fortinet by 30.9% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 7,575,662 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $636,962,000 after purchasing an additional 1,790,033 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased 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 valued at $326,297,000 after acquiring an additional 1,777,115 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Fortinet Company Profile

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.