Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Given New $205.00 Price Target at Royal Bank Of Canada

Key Points

• Royal Bank of Canada raised Fortinet’s price target to $205 from $185 while maintaining a “sector perform” rating, implying roughly 5.24% upside from the prior close.
• Analyst sentiment remains mixed, with Fortinet holding an overall “Hold” rating and an average price target of $156.51 across surveyed firms.
• Fortinet exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $0.90 in earnings per share versus $0.75 expected and $2.05 billion in revenue, up 25.6% year over year; insiders sold $36.2 million of stock over the past 90 days.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) had its price objective upped by analysts at Royal Bank Of Canada from $185.00 to $205.00 in a note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a "sector perform" rating on the software maker's stock. Royal Bank Of Canada's price objective would indicate a potential upside of 5.24% from the stock's previous close.

Several other research firms have also commented on FTNT. Wells Fargo & Company set a $135.00 price target on shares of Fortinet and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Bank of America reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Mizuho set a $125.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $190.00 price objective (up from $116.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, William Blair reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $156.51.

Fortinet Price Performance

FTNT opened at $194.79 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $142.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 68.99, a PEG ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Fortinet has a 12-month low of $73.55 and a 12-month high of $196.50. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $167.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is $139.62.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software maker reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.15. Fortinet had a return on equity of 191.54% and a net margin of 28.17%. The firm had revenue of $2.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.89 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.64 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 25.6% on a year-over-year basis. 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, equities research analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 3.10 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO John Whittle sold 53,865 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.44, for a total transaction of $8,911,425.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 96,987 shares of the company's stock, valued at $16,045,529.28. This represents a 35.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction 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. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 3,121 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 approximately $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. Insiders sold a total of 221,303 shares of company stock worth $36,164,034 in the last 90 days. 17.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Burk Holdings LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the second quarter worth approximately $25,000. Dunhill Financial LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet in the second quarter worth approximately $25,000. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC lifted its stake in Fortinet by 102.5% in the second quarter. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC now owns 164 shares of the software maker's stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Timbuktu Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet in the second quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Elevation Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in Fortinet by 53.6% during the 2nd quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 215 shares of the software maker's stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

About Fortinet

Fortinet, Inc develops and provides cybersecurity products and services for businesses, governments, and service providers. The company's portfolio is designed to protect networks, endpoints, applications, cloud environments, and operational technology from cyber threats.

Its offerings include FortiGate next-generation firewalls, FortiSwitch secure networking switches, FortiAP wireless access points, FortiClient endpoint security, and FortiSASE secure access service edge solutions. Fortinet also provides centralized management and analytics through products such as FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer, along with security operations, threat intelligence, and other subscription-based services through its FortiGuard portfolio.

Founded in 2000, Fortinet serves customers globally through direct sales, channel partners, and managed security service providers.

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