Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Given Consensus Recommendation of "Hold" by Brokerages

Key Points

• Analysts give Fortinet a consensus "Hold" rating from 31 firms (4 sell, 22 hold, 5 buy) with an average 1‑year target price of $87.84.
• Insiders sold significant stock on Feb 2—CEO Ken Xie offloaded 175,737 shares and VP Michael Xie 343,106 shares at an average of $81.42—leaving insiders with 17.20% ownership.
• Fortinet beat recent quarterly estimates with $0.81 EPS vs. $0.74 expected and $1.91B revenue (up 14.8% YoY), and set Q1 2026 guidance of $0.590–0.630 EPS and FY2026 guidance of $2.94–3.00 EPS.

Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) have received a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the thirty-one ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-two have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $87.84.

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus set a $85.00 target price on Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. Mizuho upped their price objective on Fortinet from $72.00 to $74.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Freedom Capital downgraded Fortinet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Citigroup restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $90.00 price objective (up from $85.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c)" rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, March 27th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 175,737 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.42, for a total value of $14,308,506.54. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,396,385 shares in the company, valued at $4,184,693,666.70. This represents a 0.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 343,106 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.42, for a total value of $27,935,690.52. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 10,210,282 shares in the company, valued at $831,321,160.44. This represents a 3.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 17.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. Financial Consulate Inc. purchased a new position in Fortinet during the third quarter worth about $25,000. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. purchased a new position in Fortinet during the third quarter worth about $25,000. Pinnacle Holdings LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet during the third quarter worth about $25,000. Ameriflex Group Inc. purchased a new position in Fortinet during the third quarter worth about $25,000. Finally, Wexford Capital LP purchased a new position in Fortinet during the third quarter worth about $25,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortinet Stock Down 0.3%

FTNT opened at $83.51 on Thursday. The business's fifty day moving average is $81.88 and its two-hundred day moving average is $81.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.17. The company has a market cap of $61.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.37, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.00. Fortinet has a one year low of $70.12 and a one year high of $109.33.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The software maker reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $1.91 billion for 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 quarterly revenue was up 14.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $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. Analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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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