Cantor Fitzgerald Reiterates "Neutral" Rating for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Key Points

• Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on Fortinet with an $87 price target (about a 5.3% upside), and the Street consensus sits at a Hold rating with a $87.68 average target.
• Fortinet beat quarterly expectations—$0.81 EPS on $1.91B revenue (revenue +14.8% YOY)—and provided Q1 2026 guidance of $0.59–0.63 EPS and FY2026 guidance of $2.94–3.00 EPS.
• Company insiders sold sizable stakes on Feb 2 (CEO Ken Xie ~175,737 shares; VP Michael Xie ~343,106 shares), while institutional investors hold roughly 83.7% of the stock.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "neutral" rating reaffirmed by investment analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald in a research report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $87.00 price objective on the software maker's stock. Cantor Fitzgerald's price target would indicate a potential upside of 5.33% from the company's previous close.

A number of other analysts have also commented on the stock. TD Cowen raised shares of Fortinet from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $100.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Oppenheimer restated a "market perform" rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. They issued an "underweight" rating and a $64.00 price target for the company. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated a "market perform" rating and set a $83.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $87.68.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $82.60 on Tuesday. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $81.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $81.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $61.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.99, a PEG ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40. Fortinet has a 52-week low of $70.12 and a 52-week high of $109.33.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The software maker reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.86 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 124.21% and a net margin of 27.26%.Fortinet's revenue was up 14.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.74 earnings per share. Fortinet has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 0.590-0.630 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 2.940-3.000 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 2.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 175,737 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.42, for a total transaction of $14,308,506.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,396,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,184,693,666.70. This trade represents a 0.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 343,106 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.42, for a total transaction of $27,935,690.52. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 10,210,282 shares in the company, valued at $831,321,160.44. The trade was a 3.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 18.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of FTNT. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the first quarter worth $6,603,000. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated grew its stake in Fortinet by 27.5% in the first quarter. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated now owns 6,124 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $500,000 after purchasing an additional 1,319 shares in the last quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC increased its position in Fortinet by 43.2% in the 1st quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 15,655 shares of the software maker's stock worth $1,279,000 after purchasing an additional 4,726 shares during the last quarter. Global Financial Private Client LLC increased its position in Fortinet by 18.5% in the 1st quarter. Global Financial Private Client LLC now owns 15,173 shares of the software maker's stock worth $1,240,000 after purchasing an additional 2,373 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC increased its position in Fortinet by 1,320.3% in the 1st quarter. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC now owns 9,090 shares of the software maker's stock worth $743,000 after purchasing an additional 8,450 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortinet Company Profile

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.

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