Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Gets Price Target Cut from Wells Fargo & Company

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price target decreased by Wells Fargo & Company from $160.00 to $115.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an underweight rating on the software maker’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on FTNT. Mizuho set a $118.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday. Daiwa Securities Group increased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $118.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 23rd. Rosenblatt Securities cut their price target on Fortinet from $195.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $145.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating, twenty-four have issued a Hold rating and six have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $147.94.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $136.08 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. Fortinet has a twelve month low of $73.55 and a twelve month high of $197.13. The business’s 50 day moving average is $171.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $128.28. The company has a market capitalization of $99.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 1.04.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 28th. The software maker reported $0.91 EPS 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 company had revenue of $2.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.06 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.74 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 20.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 3.19 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Fortinet news, COO John Whittle sold 2,835 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.74, for a total value of $478,377.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 96,987 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,365,586.38. This represents a 2.84% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 17.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Fortinet in the second quarter worth approximately $9,561,650,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,432,842,000. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $979,062,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in Fortinet by 87.4% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the second quarter valued at $656,852,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Fortinet

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.

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.