Wells Fargo & Company Upgrades Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) to “Strong Sell”

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) was upgraded by investment analysts at Wells Fargo & Company to a “strong sell” rating in a research note issued on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

FTNT has been the subject of a number of other reports. Barclays set a $88.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Scotiabank lowered shares of Fortinet from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $85.00 target price for the company. in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $90.00 price target (up from $85.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $90.00 price objective (up from $85.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $88.62.

Fortinet Price Performance

Fortinet stock opened at $81.10 on Monday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $80.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $81.42. The stock has a market cap of $60.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 1.05. Fortinet has a 12-month low of $70.12 and a 12-month high of $109.33. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The software maker reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.86 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 124.21% and a net margin of 27.26%.The company’s revenue was up 14.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.74 earnings per share. 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, research analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 343,106 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.42, for a total value of $27,935,690.52. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 175,737 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.42, for a total value of $14,308,506.54. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,396,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,184,693,666.70. This represents a 0.34% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 18.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. LSV Asset Management bought a new position in Fortinet in the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Pinnacle Holdings LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the third quarter worth $25,000. Financial Consulate Inc. bought a new stake in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. acquired a new position in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. Finally, Ameriflex Group Inc. acquired a new position in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.