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

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) has been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the thirty-six analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-three have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $113.9677.

A number of brokerages have commented on FTNT. Robert W. Baird set a $115.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Arete Research set a $104.00 target price on shares of Fortinet and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. HSBC lowered shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and set a $102.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, June 29th. Finally, BTIG Research lifted their price target on Fortinet from $150.00 to $186.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th.

Fortinet Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of Fortinet stock opened at $161.61 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.15. Fortinet has a 52 week low of $70.12 and a 52 week high of $170.35. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $144.30 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $103.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $118.40 billion, a PE ratio of 62.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.37 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 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.20. Fortinet had a return on equity of 160.08% and a net margin of 27.49%.The firm had revenue of $1.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.73 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.58 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 20.1% on a year-over-year basis. Fortinet has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.720-0.760 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.160 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 2.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In related news, COO John Whittle sold 146,015 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.41, for a total transaction of $18,749,786.15. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 94,724 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,163,508.84. The trade was a 60.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 3,907 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.44, for a total value of $572,141.08. Following the sale, the vice president owned 9,923,610 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,453,213,448.40. This trade represents a 0.04% 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 sold a total of 318,387 shares of company stock valued at $43,403,063 over the last ninety days. 17.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of FTNT. Expressive Wealth LLC bought a new position in Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at $646,000. Trilogy Capital Inc. lifted its stake in Fortinet by 46.8% during the fourth quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. now owns 44,152 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,506,000 after purchasing an additional 14,076 shares during the last quarter. Leonteq Securities AG bought a new stake in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth about $10,422,000. Eurizon Capital SGR S.p.A. purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth about $14,638,000. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 156.6% in the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 390,492 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $31,009,000 after purchasing an additional 238,299 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently 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.