Scotiabank Has Bullish Estimate for Fortinet FY2027 Earnings

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) – Research analysts at Scotiabank increased their FY2027 EPS estimates for shares of Fortinet in a report issued on Monday, November 2nd. Scotiabank analyst P. Colville now expects that the software maker will post earnings per share of $3.50 for the year, up from their prior estimate of $3.42. Scotiabank currently has a “Sector Perform” rating and a $140.00 target price on the stock. The consensus estimate for Fortinet’s current full-year earnings is $3.21 per share.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $165.00 price target on Fortinet and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. Barclays cut their price target on Fortinet from $210.00 to $155.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 29th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, October 29th. DZ Bank cut Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Bank of America downgraded shares of Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $140.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, October 29th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty-four have issued a Hold rating and six have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $150.44.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $122.51 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $169.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $129.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.40. The stock has a market cap of $90.01 billion, a PE ratio of 39.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.04. Fortinet has a 1 year low of $73.55 and a 1 year high of $197.13.

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

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $9,561,650,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in Fortinet during the second quarter valued at $1,432,842,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 2nd quarter worth about $979,062,000. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 45.5% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 11,506,173 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $940,284,000 after buying an additional 3,598,487 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 87.4% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,651,024 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $788,682,000 after buying an additional 4,500,194 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,483 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.31, for a total transaction of $20,881,366.73. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 52,972,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,849,857,423.32. This trade represents a 0.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 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, COO John Whittle sold 53,865 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.44, for a total transaction of $8,911,425.60. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 96,987 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,045,529.28. This represents a 35.71% 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. Insiders have sold 221,304 shares of company stock worth $30,675,309 in the last ninety days. 17.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Key Headlines Impacting Fortinet

Here are the key news stories impacting Fortinet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Fortinet launched FortiGuard Inline AI Security Service, which adds inspection and safeguards for enterprise generative-AI use, and FortiLink SASE Service, a cloud-delivered option for distributed sites. The offerings expand its addressable security portfolio. Fortinet unveiled two new security services
• Positive Sentiment: FortiAIGate is now available on the Equinix Distributed AI Hub, giving customers a validated architecture to govern and protect AI across hybrid and multicloud environments. This could support Fortinet’s positioning as companies scale AI deployment. Fortinet and Equinix secure distributed AI at scale
• Positive Sentiment: Daiwa upgraded Fortinet to “outperform” with a $150 target, and Scotiabank raised its 2026 EPS estimate to $3.21 from $3.10, though it kept a “Sector Perform” rating. Daiwa rating information
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst views are mixed: Zacks Research cut its rating to “hold,” while the recent Daiwa upgrade offers a counterpoint. Mixed recommendations may leave investors focused on execution and forward guidance.
• Negative Sentiment: The main overhang remains the services outlook. Coverage of Fortinet’s Q3 call points to delayed service revenue, alongside slower product-growth expectations and rising component costs, despite a higher 2026 outlook and strong AI demand. Investors appear to be prioritizing those growth and margin concerns over the earnings beat. Q3 earnings call highlights services outlook and AI demand
• Negative Sentiment: ETFs were net sellers of $15.7 million in Fortinet shares on Nov. 3, while CEO Ken Xie’s reported sale of 161,483 shares may also draw attention to insider activity. ETF selling in Fortinet Ken Xie share sale

About Fortinet

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.