Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Has Average Target Price of $152.79 According to Analysts

Key Points

• Analysts have a consensus “Hold” rating on Fortinet, with 19 holds, 10 buys, 2 strong buys, and 5 sells. The average 12-month price target is $152.79, below the reported share price of $178.76.
• Fortinet reported quarterly EPS of $0.90 versus the $0.75 consensus estimate, while revenue reached $2.05 billion, up 25.6% year over year and above expectations.
• Insiders sold approximately $36.2 million of stock over the past 90 days, while institutional investors own a substantial 83.71% of Fortinet’s shares.

Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus rating of "Hold" from the thirty-six analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nineteen have issued a hold recommendation, ten have given a buy recommendation and two have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $152.79.

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus set a $175.00 target price on Fortinet and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $190.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Zacks Research raised shares of Fortinet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a "hold" rating and issued a $160.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Barclays set a $190.00 target price on shares of Fortinet and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other news, COO John Whittle sold 2,835 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.74, for a total value of $478,377.90. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 96,987 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,365,586.38. The trade was a 2.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,482 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 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 position. 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 221,303 shares of company stock worth $36,164,034 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 17.60% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Fortinet by 12.7% during the 2nd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 85,054 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $13,066,000 after purchasing an additional 9,563 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. grew its position in Fortinet by 681.7% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 40,608 shares of the software maker's stock worth $6,238,000 after purchasing an additional 35,413 shares during the last quarter. Andra AP fonden acquired a new stake in Fortinet in the 2nd quarter worth $4,425,000. Security National Bank of SO Dak bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 2nd quarter worth about $88,000. Finally, Revere Asset Management Inc bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 2nd quarter worth about $9,968,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Trading Up 1.6%

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $178.76 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $162.61 and a 200 day simple moving average of $134.50. Fortinet has a 52 week low of $73.55 and a 52 week high of $181.37. The stock has a market cap of $131.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.94, a PEG ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.28.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software maker reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $2.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.89 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 28.17% and a return on equity of 191.54%. Fortinet's revenue for the quarter was up 25.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.64 earnings per share. 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, research analysts predict that Fortinet will post 3.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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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