Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Gets Price Target Cut from Scotiabank

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price objective cut by Scotiabank from $163.00 to $140.00 in a report released on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a sector perform rating on the software maker’s stock.

Several other research analysts also recently issued reports on FTNT. Robert W. Baird set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Fortinet from $175.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Evercore set a $165.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating and set a $225.00 target price (up from $215.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, October 13th. Finally, Wolfe Research set a $175.00 price target on Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating, twenty-four have given a Hold rating and six have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortinet presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $147.94.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of FTNT opened at $136.08 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $99.84 billion, a PE ratio of 44.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.19. Fortinet has a one year low of $73.55 and a one year high of $197.13. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $171.34 and its 200 day moving average price is $128.28.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 28th. The software maker reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.05. Fortinet had a return on equity of 152.72% and a net margin of 28.96%. The company had revenue of $2.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.06 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.74 earnings per share. Fortinet’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Fortinet will post 3.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,482 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer 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. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed 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, COO John Whittle sold 2,835 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.74, for a total transaction of $478,377.90. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 96,987 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,365,586.38. The trade was a 2.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. Insiders have sold 221,303 shares of company stock worth $36,164,034 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 17.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the second quarter valued at approximately $9,561,650,000. First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 45.5% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 11,506,173 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $940,284,000 after purchasing an additional 3,598,487 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 87.4% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,651,024 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $788,682,000 after purchasing an additional 4,500,194 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,432,842,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $979,062,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortinet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Fortinet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Fortinet reported third-quarter revenue of approximately $2.08 billion, up 20.5% year over year, and adjusted EPS of $0.91, exceeding consensus estimates. Billings increased 29%, while operating margins reached a record. Fortinet Q3 Earnings and Revenues Beat Estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Management raised full-year 2026 guidance to $8.1 billion-$8.2 billion in revenue and $3.54-$3.58 in EPS. Fourth-quarter EPS guidance of $0.93-$0.95 also exceeds the consensus estimate of $0.86. Fortinet Raises Guidance
• Positive Sentiment: The board authorized an additional $1.2 billion in share repurchases, and quarterly free cash flow was approximately $865 million. Analysts at TD Cowen, Rosenblatt and Truist retained bullish ratings despite lowering their price targets. Fortinet Adds to Buyback Program
• Neutral Sentiment: Fortinet is technically oversold after a sharp multi-week decline, while rising earnings estimates could support a rebound. However, the technical signal does not resolve concerns about the company’s growth mix. Fortinet May See a Trend Reversal
• Negative Sentiment: Service revenue grew only 13%, versus 37% growth in product revenue. Investors are concerned that hardware sales tied to AI infrastructure are not converting into recurring services quickly enough, reducing near-term revenue visibility. The Real Reason Fortinet Dropped
• Negative Sentiment: Management lowered its services outlook, while fourth-quarter revenue guidance implies growth deceleration from the third quarter. Normalizing pricing benefits, higher inventory costs and longer component lead times added to investor concerns.
• Negative Sentiment: Wells Fargo cut its price target to $115 and assigned an underweight rating; Susquehanna lowered its target to $145 and rated the shares neutral. Other firms, including Bank of America, Citi, Barclays and Scotiabank, also reduced targets or ratings. Analysts Cut Fortinet Forecasts
• Negative Sentiment: The broader technology and cybersecurity sell-off is amplifying the reaction, despite a major cryptocurrency hack highlighting demand for digital security. Investors are also questioning whether Fortinet’s premium valuation remains justified as growth slows.

About Fortinet

Fortinet, Inc develops cybersecurity products and services designed to protect networks, endpoints, applications, cloud environments and operational technology systems. The company’s portfolio includes next-generation firewalls, secure networking products, endpoint security, web application security, email security, identity and access solutions, and security information and event management tools.

Its product offerings include FortiGate network security appliances and cloud-based firewalls, along with FortiSwitch, FortiAP and FortiExtender solutions for secure connectivity.