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

Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the thirty-six brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nineteen have given a hold recommendation, ten have assigned a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $150.9091.

FTNT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Friday, September 4th. Morgan Stanley reissued a “positive” rating and set a $136.00 target price (up from $133.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Mizuho set a $125.00 target price on Fortinet and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of FTNT opened at $158.85 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $158.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $125.41. The company has a market capitalization of $116.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.06. Fortinet has a fifty-two week low of $73.55 and a fifty-two week high of $173.89. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software maker reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.89 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 191.54% and a net margin of 28.17%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm 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. Research analysts predict that Fortinet will post 3.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,482 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.66, for a total transaction of $26,266,662.12. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 52,972,372 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,616,486,029.52. The trade was a 0.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 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. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 3,121 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the vice president directly owned 9,918,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,613,022,886.80. This represents a 0.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 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. 17.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 15,545.1% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 145,097,777 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $22,289,921,000 after purchasing an additional 144,170,346 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 2nd quarter worth about $9,561,650,000. State Street Corp lifted its position in Fortinet by 1.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 29,660,558 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,493,860,000 after buying an additional 477,397 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth about $1,152,917,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 14,504,597 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,151,810,000 after acquiring an additional 893,190 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Fortinet

Here are the key news stories impacting Fortinet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Gartner recognition reinforces Fortinet’s competitive position. Fortinet was named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Hybrid Mesh Firewall and ranked highest for Ability to Execute for the second consecutive year. The recognition highlights adoption of its FortiGate and FortiOS platform across physical, cloud, virtual and as-a-service environments, as well as investments in AI, secure networking, multi-cloud orchestration and post-quantum cryptography. Fortinet Named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant Report
• Positive Sentiment: Growth and guidance support the bullish case. Recent results showed revenue rising approximately 26% year over year to about $2.05 billion, while earnings exceeded analyst expectations. Fortinet also raised its 2026 outlook, and ongoing demand for AI-related security products and expanding margins could help justify the stock’s elevated valuation. Is FTNT Stock Worth Buying at a Premium P/S or Should Investors Wait?
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest data provides little useful signal. Reported short interest was zero, with a zero-day short-interest ratio, but the accompanying percentage change was listed as “NaN,” suggesting a data-quality issue rather than a meaningful change in bearish positioning.
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation and analyst caution could limit further upside. Fortinet trades at a rich earnings and sales multiple after a substantial rally. Some analysts continue to question whether growth can remain strong enough to support the premium, with several ratings below Buy and a median reported price target well below the current trading level.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling is a potential overhang. Reported insider activity over the past six months included 36 sales and no purchases, including substantial sales by CEO Ken Xie. While such transactions may reflect compensation or portfolio diversification, the absence of insider buying can weigh on investor sentiment.

About Fortinet

Fortinet, Inc develops cybersecurity products and services designed to protect enterprise, small and midsize business, service provider, and government networks. Its portfolio covers network security, endpoint protection, cloud security, secure access service edge (SASE), security operations, and zero-trust access.

The company’s offerings include FortiGate next-generation firewalls, FortiSwitch secure networking switches, FortiAP wireless access points, FortiClient endpoint security, and FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer management and analytics tools.