Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Announces FY 2026 Earnings Guidance

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) issued an update on its FY 2026 earnings guidance on Friday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of 3.540-3.580 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of 3.380. The company issued revenue guidance of $8.1 billion-$8.2 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $8.1 billion. Fortinet also updated its Q4 2026 guidance to 0.930-0.950 EPS.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FTNT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Fortinet from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Thursday, October 8th. William Blair reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $190.00 price objective (up from $116.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Capital One Financial raised their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $150.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Scotiabank cut their target price on Fortinet from $163.00 to $140.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating, twenty-four have assigned a Hold rating and six have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $147.94.

Fortinet Stock Down 2.2%

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $136.08 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $171.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $128.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $99.84 billion, a PE ratio of 44.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 1.03. Fortinet has a fifty-two week low of $73.55 and a fifty-two week high of $197.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.40.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The software maker reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $2.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.06 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 28.96% and a return on equity of 152.72%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 20.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.74 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Fortinet will post 3.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,482 shares of the company’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 transaction of $26,266,662.12. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 52,972,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,616,486,029.52. This represents a 0.30% decrease in their position. The sale 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 Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.63, for a total value of $507,568.23. Following the sale, the vice president directly 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 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 sold 221,303 shares of company stock valued at $36,164,034. 17.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Key Fortinet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Fortinet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Fortinet reported third-quarter revenue of approximately $2.08 billion, up 20.5% year over year, and adjusted EPS of $0.91, exceeding consensus estimates. Billings increased 29%, while operating margins reached a record. Fortinet Q3 Earnings and Revenues Beat Estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Management raised full-year 2026 guidance to $8.1 billion-$8.2 billion in revenue and $3.54-$3.58 in EPS. Fourth-quarter EPS guidance of $0.93-$0.95 also exceeds the consensus estimate of $0.86. Fortinet Raises Guidance
• Positive Sentiment: The board authorized an additional $1.2 billion in share repurchases, and quarterly free cash flow was approximately $865 million. Analysts at TD Cowen, Rosenblatt and Truist retained bullish ratings despite lowering their price targets. Fortinet Adds to Buyback Program
• Neutral Sentiment: Fortinet is technically oversold after a sharp multi-week decline, while rising earnings estimates could support a rebound. However, the technical signal does not resolve concerns about the company’s growth mix. Fortinet May See a Trend Reversal
• Negative Sentiment: Service revenue grew only 13%, versus 37% growth in product revenue. Investors are concerned that hardware sales tied to AI infrastructure are not converting into recurring services quickly enough, reducing near-term revenue visibility. The Real Reason Fortinet Dropped
• Negative Sentiment: Management lowered its services outlook, while fourth-quarter revenue guidance implies growth deceleration from the third quarter. Normalizing pricing benefits, higher inventory costs and longer component lead times added to investor concerns.
• Negative Sentiment: Wells Fargo cut its price target to $115 and assigned an underweight rating; Susquehanna lowered its target to $145 and rated the shares neutral. Other firms, including Bank of America, Citi, Barclays and Scotiabank, also reduced targets or ratings. Analysts Cut Fortinet Forecasts
• Negative Sentiment: The broader technology and cybersecurity sell-off is amplifying the reaction, despite a major cryptocurrency hack highlighting demand for digital security. Investors are also questioning whether Fortinet’s premium valuation remains justified as growth slows.

Fortinet Company Profile

Fortinet, Inc develops cybersecurity products and services designed to protect networks, endpoints, applications, cloud environments and operational technology systems. The company’s portfolio includes next-generation firewalls, secure networking products, endpoint security, web application security, email security, identity and access solutions, and security information and event management tools.

Its product offerings include FortiGate network security appliances and cloud-based firewalls, along with FortiSwitch, FortiAP and FortiExtender solutions for secure connectivity.