Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Rating Increased to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Monday.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on FTNT. Wells Fargo & Company set a $135.00 price target on Fortinet and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. BTIG Research lifted their price objective on Fortinet from $186.00 to $203.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Fortinet from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Friday. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $180.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Mizuho set a $125.00 target price on Fortinet and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortinet has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $150.91.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of FTNT opened at $163.21 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $151.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $109.91. The stock has a market cap of $119.75 billion, a PE ratio of 57.47, a P/E/G ratio of 3.93 and a beta of 1.07. Fortinet has a 1-year low of $70.12 and a 1-year high of $170.35. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software maker reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $2.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.89 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 28.17% and a return on equity of 191.54%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.64 EPS. Fortinet has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.410-3.470 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.830-0.870 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 2.82 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO John Whittle sold 146,015 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.41, for a total value of $18,749,786.15. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 94,724 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,163,508.84. This represents a 60.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 3,907 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.44, for a total transaction of $572,141.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 9,923,610 shares in the company, valued at $1,453,213,448.40. This represents a 0.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 310,554 shares of company stock worth $42,706,734 over the last 90 days. 17.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. BIP Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the 2nd quarter worth $464,000. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet in the second quarter valued at $211,000. Summit Global Investments acquired a new position in Fortinet in the second quarter valued at $2,080,000. Bryn Mawr Trust Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the second quarter worth about $264,000. Finally, Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the second quarter worth about $201,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.