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

Key Points

• Mizuho cut its price target for Fortinet from $74 to $70 and maintained an "underperform" rating, implying about an 11.1% downside from the current price.
• MarketBeat shows a consensus "Hold" rating with a consensus price target of $87.68 (5 Buys, 22 Holds, 4 Sells), indicating mixed analyst views and higher targets from several firms.
• Fortinet beat last-quarter estimates—reporting $0.81 EPS vs. $0.74 expected and $1.91B revenue vs. $1.86B—and set Q1 2026 guidance of $0.590–0.630 EPS and FY 2026 guidance of $2.94–3.00 EPS.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) had its price target lowered by investment analysts at Mizuho from $74.00 to $70.00 in a report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an "underperform" rating on the software maker's stock. Mizuho's target price would suggest a potential downside of 11.11% from the stock's current price.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on FTNT. Robert W. Baird set a $90.00 price objective on Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "hold (c)" rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, March 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $72.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $85.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortinet has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $87.68.

Fortinet Price Performance

Fortinet stock opened at $78.75 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $58.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.41, a PEG ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 1.00. Fortinet has a 1 year low of $70.12 and a 1 year high of $109.33. The business has a 50-day moving average of $81.72 and a 200-day moving average of $81.84. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The software maker reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 124.21% and a net margin of 27.26%.The business had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.86 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.74 EPS. Fortinet's quarterly revenue was up 14.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Fortinet has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 0.590-0.630 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 2.940-3.000 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 343,106 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.42, for a total transaction of $27,935,690.52. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 10,210,282 shares of the company's stock, valued at $831,321,160.44. This trade represents a 3.25% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 175,737 shares of the firm'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 $14,308,506.54. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,396,385 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,184,693,666.70. This represents a 0.34% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Company insiders own 17.20% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Fortinet by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 75,581,275 shares of the software maker's stock worth $6,354,874,000 after buying an additional 2,894,355 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 1.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 29,660,558 shares of the software maker's stock worth $2,493,860,000 after purchasing an additional 477,397 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth $1,152,917,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 14,504,597 shares of the software maker's stock worth $1,151,810,000 after purchasing an additional 893,190 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 17.0% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,816,519 shares of the software maker's stock worth $909,453,000 after purchasing an additional 1,568,337 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

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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