Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Saturday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other analysts also recently weighed in on FTNT. BTIG Research boosted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $186.00 to $203.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. William Blair reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Mizuho set a $125.00 price objective on Fortinet and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, September 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $165.00 price objective on Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating, nineteen have given a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Fortinet has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $152.79.

Fortinet Stock Up 1.7%

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $176.33 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $161.78 and a 200-day moving average price of $133.19. Fortinet has a one year low of $73.55 and a one year high of $181.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.28. The company has a market capitalization of $129.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 62.09, a P/E/G ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.06.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software maker reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.15. Fortinet had a net margin of 28.17% and a return on equity of 191.54%. The company had revenue of $2.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.89 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.64 earnings per share. Fortinet’s quarterly revenue was up 25.6% on a year-over-year basis. 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, equities analysts predict that Fortinet will post 3.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 3,121 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owned 9,918,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,613,022,886.80. This trade represents a 0.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at 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, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,482 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.66, for a total value of $26,266,662.12. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 52,972,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,616,486,029.52. This trade represents a 0.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 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. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 221,303 shares of company stock worth $36,164,034. Insiders own 17.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Fortinet in the 2nd quarter valued at $9,561,650,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at $1,152,917,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 893,190 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 45.5% in the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 11,506,173 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $940,284,000 after purchasing an additional 3,598,487 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 87.4% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,651,024 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $788,682,000 after purchasing an additional 4,500,194 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Fortinet

Fortinet, Inc develops and provides cybersecurity products and services for businesses, governments, and service providers. The company’s portfolio is designed to protect networks, endpoints, applications, cloud environments, and operational technology from cyber threats.

Its offerings include FortiGate next-generation firewalls, FortiSwitch secure networking switches, FortiAP wireless access points, FortiClient endpoint security, and FortiSASE secure access service edge solutions. Fortinet also provides centralized management and analytics through products such as FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer, along with security operations, threat intelligence, and other subscription-based services through its FortiGuard portfolio.

Founded in 2000, Fortinet serves customers globally through direct sales, channel partners, and managed security service providers.