Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Reaches New 12-Month High – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $172.20 and last traded at $170.6650, with a volume of 27668 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $168.29.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on FTNT shares. HSBC cut shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and set a $102.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Zacks Research upgraded Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. William Blair reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $185.00 price target on shares of Fortinet and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed a “positive” rating and issued a $136.00 price target (up from $133.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $150.91.

Fortinet Trading Down 2.4%

The business has a 50-day moving average of $153.11 and a 200-day moving average of $111.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $117.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.38, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.28.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software maker reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $2.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.89 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 191.54% and a net margin of 28.17%.The company’s revenue was up 25.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.64 earnings per share. 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, research analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 3.05 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO John Whittle sold 146,015 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 94,724 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,163,508.84. This represents a 60.65% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 3,121 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.63, for a total value of $507,568.23. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 9,918,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,613,022,886.80. This represents a 0.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 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. Insiders sold a total of 475,157 shares of company stock valued at $69,480,964 over the last three months. 17.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Expressive Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at $646,000. Trilogy Capital Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 46.8% in the 4th 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 period. Leonteq Securities AG acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at about $10,422,000. Eurizon Capital SGR S.p.A. acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $14,638,000. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its holdings in Fortinet by 156.6% in the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 390,492 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $31,009,000 after buying an additional 238,299 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

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.