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

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen downgraded Fortinet from “Buy” to “Hold,” aligning with MarketBeat’s consensus “Hold” rating and average price target of $152.79.
• Fortinet reported strong quarterly results, with EPS of $0.90 beating estimates by $0.15 and revenue rising 25.6% year over year to $2.05 billion.
• FTNT shares opened at $173.46, near their 52-week high of $181.37; the stock has a $127.27 billion market capitalization and trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.08.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) was downgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report released on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

FTNT has been the subject of a number of other reports. Piper Sandler reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $175.00 target price (up from $110.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Evercore set a $165.00 price target on Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Barclays set a $190.00 price objective on Fortinet and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Fortinet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Fortinet from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a report on Friday, September 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $152.79.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $173.46 on Friday. Fortinet has a fifty-two week low of $73.55 and a fifty-two week high of $181.37. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $161.46 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $132.20. 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 firm has a market cap of $127.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 1.06.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software maker reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $2.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.89 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.64 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 25.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Fortinet has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.410-3.470 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.830-0.870 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Fortinet will post 3.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 3,121 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.63, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 0.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at 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 161,482 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.66, for a total value of $26,266,662.12. Following the completion of the sale, 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 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. Insiders have sold 221,303 shares of company stock worth $36,164,034 in the last 90 days. 17.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FTNT. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the second quarter worth about $9,561,650,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in Fortinet in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,432,842,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,152,917,000. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $979,062,000. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 45.5% during the 1st 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 period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Company Profile

Fortinet, Inc develops cybersecurity products and services designed to protect enterprise, small and midsize business, service provider, and government networks. Its portfolio covers network security, endpoint protection, cloud security, secure access service edge (SASE), security operations, and zero-trust access.

The company's offerings include FortiGate next-generation firewalls, FortiSwitch secure networking switches, FortiAP wireless access points, FortiClient endpoint security, and FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer management and analytics tools.

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