Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Price Down 4.3% – What’s Next?

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) shares dropped 4.3% on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $157.07 and last traded at $154.8350. 315,807 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 95% from the average session volume of 6,173,701 shares. The stock had previously closed at $161.85.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FTNT has been the topic of a number of research reports. DZ Bank lowered shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley reissued a “positive” rating and set a $136.00 price target (up from $133.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Barclays set a $190.00 target price on shares of Fortinet and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Wall Street Zen raised Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada set a $185.00 target price on shares of Fortinet and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $150.91.

Fortinet Trading Down 4.9%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $158.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $121.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $112.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.22, a P/E/G ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.06.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software maker reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $2.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.89 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 28.17% and a return on equity of 191.54%. The business’s revenue was up 25.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business 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. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 3.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 3,121 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.63, for a total transaction of $507,568.23. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 9,918,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,613,022,886.80. This represents a 0.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at 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 the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $8,616,486,029.52. This represents a 0.30% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 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. Company insiders own 17.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 102.5% during the 2nd quarter. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC now owns 164 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP grew its holdings in Fortinet by 426.2% in the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 198,342 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $30,469,000 after purchasing an additional 160,649 shares during the last quarter. Formuepleje A S acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet during the second quarter worth $938,000. Amundi lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 23.1% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 4,732,986 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $727,081,000 after purchasing an additional 889,658 shares during the last quarter. Finally, VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 2nd quarter worth $66,986,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.