Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Price Crosses Below 50 Day Moving Average After Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) crossed below its 50 day moving average during trading on Thursday after TD Cowen lowered their price target on the stock from $225.00 to $190.00. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $171.64 and traded as low as $127.40. TD Cowen currently has a buy rating on the stock. Fortinet shares last traded at $139.10, with a volume of 17,323,503 shares trading hands.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Bank of America downgraded Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $140.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Thursday. Barclays reduced their price target on Fortinet from $210.00 to $155.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $145.00 price target (up from $102.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, October 15th. One research 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 given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $149.61.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,482 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The stock was 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 directly owned 52,972,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,616,486,029.52. This trade represents a 0.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 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, VP Michael Xie sold 3,121 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.63, for a total value of $507,568.23. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 9,918,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,613,022,886.80. This trade represents a 0.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 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. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 221,303 shares of company stock worth $36,164,034. Company insiders own 17.60% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Fortinet

Here are the key news stories impacting Fortinet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Fortinet reported third-quarter revenue of $2.08 billion, up approximately 20% year over year, while adjusted EPS of $0.91 exceeded expectations. Billings increased 29% to $2.34 billion, and management raised its overall 2026 revenue outlook. Fortinet Reports Strong Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results
• Positive Sentiment: Product revenue grew 37% to $765 million, operating margins reached record levels, and the board authorized an additional $1.2 billion for share repurchases. Strong free cash flow and rising deferred revenue could support future services growth. Fortinet Raises Guidance Again
• Neutral Sentiment: Management attributed the services slowdown partly to customers deploying security hardware for AI and data-center projects before activating related recurring services. Investors will watch whether those deployments convert into service revenue in coming quarters.
• Negative Sentiment: Services revenue rose only 13% to $1.31 billion, significantly below product growth, and Fortinet lowered its services-revenue forecast. Analysts cited slowing product momentum and services headwinds, with multiple firms cutting price targets or downgrading the stock. Fortinet Stock Sinks
• Negative Sentiment: Fourth-quarter revenue guidance implies growth of roughly 15%, below the third quarter’s pace. Normalizing pricing benefits, higher inventory costs, and a valuation near 49 times earnings amplified the market’s reaction. The selloff also pressured other cybersecurity and software stocks amid broader concerns about AI disruption. Software Stocks Slide After Fortinet Results

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Burk Holdings LLC bought a new position in Fortinet during the second quarter valued at about $25,000. Dunhill Financial LLC bought a new stake in Fortinet in the second quarter worth about $25,000. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC raised its position in 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 acquiring an additional 83 shares during the period. NFSG Corp purchased a new position in Fortinet in the third quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, Timbuktu Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet in the second quarter valued at about $31,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Fortinet Trading Down 20.1%

The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $171.64 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $127.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $102.06 billion, a PE ratio of 45.16, a PEG ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.19.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The software maker reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.05. Fortinet had a net margin of 28.96% and a return on equity of 182.65%. The company had revenue of $2.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.06 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.74 EPS. Fortinet’s quarterly revenue was up 20.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 3.10 EPS for the current year.

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.