Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Reaches New 52-Week High - Here's Why

Key Points

• Fortinet shares reached a new 52-week high, trading as high as $183.09 and gaining 2.1%, although the stock’s average analyst rating remains “Hold” with a $152.79 price target.
• The company reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results, with adjusted earnings of $0.90 per share versus estimates of $0.75 and revenue of $2.05 billion, up 25.6% year over year.
• Analyst sentiment was mixed: BTIG raised its price target to $203 and maintained a “Buy” rating, while UBS, Scotiabank and William Blair remained neutral. Insiders sold about $36.2 million of shares over the past 90 days under pre-arranged plans, primarily to cover tax obligations.

Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Friday. The stock traded as high as $183.09 and last traded at $182.3470, with a volume of 170924 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $178.72.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. William Blair reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Fortinet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. BTIG Research raised their price target on shares of Fortinet from $186.00 to $203.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Scotiabank restated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $163.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating, nineteen have given a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $152.79.

Fortinet Trading Up 2.1%

The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $133.93 billion, a PE ratio of 64.24, a P/E/G ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 1.03. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $163.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $135.17.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software maker reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $2.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.89 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 191.54% and a net margin of 28.17%.Fortinet's revenue was up 25.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $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. Sell-side analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 3.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, 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 completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 9,918,360 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,613,022,886.80. This represents a 0.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 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, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,482 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.66, for a total transaction of $26,266,662.12. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 52,972,372 shares in the company, valued at $8,616,486,029.52. This represents a 0.30% decrease in their position. 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 221,303 shares of company stock worth $36,164,034. 17.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Burk Holdings LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Dunhill Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the second quarter worth approximately $25,000. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 102.5% in the second quarter. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC now owns 164 shares of the software maker's stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Timbuktu Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, Elevation Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in Fortinet by 53.6% in the 2nd quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 215 shares of the software maker's stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Company Profile

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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