Rosenblatt Securities Has Lowered Expectations for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Price

Key Points

• Rosenblatt Securities lowered Fortinet’s price target from $195 to $175 while maintaining a “Buy” rating, implying only about 0.53% upside from the reported $174.08 share price.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed: Fortinet has a consensus “Hold” rating and an average price target of $155.92, despite several firms maintaining or raising their targets.
• Fortinet’s latest quarter exceeded expectations, with $2.08 billion in revenue and $0.91 adjusted EPS, but concerns about slowing growth and elevated investor expectations contributed to pressure on the stock.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) had its target price reduced by equities research analysts at Rosenblatt Securities from $195.00 to $175.00 in a research report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a "buy" rating on the software maker's stock. Rosenblatt Securities's price objective would suggest a potential upside of 0.53% from the company's current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on FTNT. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $190.00 price target (up from $116.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Daiwa Securities Group upped their price target on Fortinet from $115.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Evercore set a $165.00 target price on Fortinet in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on Fortinet from $185.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Monday, October 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $135.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating, twenty-three have issued a Hold rating and six have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortinet has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $155.92.

Fortinet Stock Down 5.9%

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $174.08 on Thursday. Fortinet has a 1 year low of $73.55 and a 1 year high of $197.13. 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 $127.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.30, a PEG ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 1.03. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $171.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $127.69.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last released 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. The firm had revenue of $2.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.06 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 28.17% and a return on equity of 191.54%. The firm's revenue was up 20.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.74 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 3.10 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,482 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 52,972,372 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,616,486,029.52. This represents a 0.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 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, VP Michael Xie sold 3,121 shares of the company'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 sale, the vice president owned 9,918,360 shares in the company, valued at $1,613,022,886.80. The trade was a 0.03% 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. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 221,303 shares of company stock valued at $36,164,034. 17.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Burk Holdings LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. Dunhill Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the second quarter worth approximately $25,000. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 102.5% during the second quarter. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC now owns 164 shares of the software maker's stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. NFSG Corp acquired a new position in Fortinet in the third quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Finally, Timbuktu Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet in the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Key Fortinet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Fortinet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Fortinet reported third-quarter revenue of $2.08 billion, up approximately 20% year over year, while non-GAAP EPS of $0.91 exceeded the $0.86 consensus estimate. Product revenue rose 37% to $765 million, billings increased 29% to $2.34 billion, and operating margins remained strong. Fortinet Reports Strong Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results
• Positive Sentiment: Management raised 2026 revenue guidance and projected 2026 billings of $9.568 billion to $9.718 billion, citing demand for AI-infrastructure security. The company also increased its share-repurchase authorization by $1.2 billion, leaving $2 billion available for buybacks. Fortinet Outlines 2026 Billings and Raises Guidance
• Neutral Sentiment: The fourth-quarter adjusted EPS outlook of $0.93 to $0.95 was provided alongside the broader guidance increase, but investors judged the forecast against particularly high expectations after FTNT’s strong run and premium valuation.
• Negative Sentiment: Analysts and investors viewed billings growth and the forward outlook as insufficient relative to lofty expectations. Analysts subsequently cut price targets, contributing to the post-earnings selloff despite the quarterly beat. Fortinet Stock Sinks Despite Q3 Beat
• Negative Sentiment: Concerns that growth is slowing in one of Fortinet’s business segments, combined with broader fears that artificial intelligence could disrupt software companies, pressured cybersecurity and software stocks broadly. Software Stocks Slide as Fortinet and ServiceNow Miss Expectations

Fortinet Company Profile

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.

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