Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Rating Upgraded by BTIG Research

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) was upgraded by analysts at BTIG Research from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Thursday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage presently has a $125.00 target price on the software maker’s stock. BTIG Research’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 9.58% from the stock’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Robert W. Baird set a $90.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and set a $90.00 price objective (up from $85.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. They set an “underweight” rating and a $64.00 price objective for the company. Scotiabank lowered shares of Fortinet from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $85.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, twenty-four have assigned a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $100.45.

Fortinet Trading Up 5.6%

Shares of FTNT opened at $114.07 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $83.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.04, a PEG ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $82.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $81.98. Fortinet has a twelve month low of $70.12 and a twelve month high of $114.66.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The software maker reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $1.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.73 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 27.49% and a return on equity of 160.08%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.58 EPS. Fortinet has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.720-0.760 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.160 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 2.64 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 2,478 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.89, for a total value of $220,269.42. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 9,927,517 shares in the company, valued at $882,456,986.13. The trade was a 0.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 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 5,355 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.90, for a total transaction of $476,059.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 52,978,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,709,744,555.60. This represents a 0.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 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. Insiders own 17.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 10,327 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $976,000 after buying an additional 221 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $585,000. HUB Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 29.1% in the second quarter. HUB Investment Partners LLC now owns 5,299 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $560,000 after buying an additional 1,193 shares during the last quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the second quarter worth approximately $1,136,000. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 27.4% in the second quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 144,989 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $15,328,000 after buying an additional 31,202 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Fortinet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Fortinet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Fortinet delivered a strong Q1 beat, with revenue up 20% year over year, EPS ahead of estimates, billings up sharply, and full-year guidance raised, signaling stronger demand across cybersecurity and AI-related security products.
• Positive Sentiment: Several analysts turned more constructive, including BTIG’s upgrade to Buy, Rosenblatt’s Buy rating with a higher target, and Citi/Susquehanna/UBS/Piper all raising price targets to around the current share price or above, supporting bullish sentiment.
• Positive Sentiment: Commentary around Fortinet’s gains suggests the results helped dispel “AI disruption” fears and highlighted growing demand tied to a more complex threat environment, which is improving investor confidence in the company’s growth runway.
• Neutral Sentiment: Citigroup and Susquehanna raised their price target to $115 while maintaining Neutral ratings, implying limited upside from current levels even after the rally.
• Neutral Sentiment: RBC Capital and Needham kept Hold-type views, indicating that not all analysts see the valuation as compelling despite the improved fundamentals.
• Negative Sentiment: There were also insider sales by the CEO and a VP, which may temper enthusiasm somewhat, though these trades appear small relative to the stock’s recent move.

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.