Mizuho Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price objective upped by equities researchers at Mizuho from $70.00 to $86.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “underperform” rating on the software maker’s stock. Mizuho’s target price would suggest a potential downside of 24.61% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on FTNT. Compass Point set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $85.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, twenty-four have assigned a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $100.45.

Fortinet Trading Up 5.6%

FTNT stock opened at $114.07 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. Fortinet has a twelve month low of $70.12 and a twelve month high of $114.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $83.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 0.92. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $82.97 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $81.98.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The software maker reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.20. Fortinet had a net margin of 27.49% and a return on equity of 160.08%. The business had revenue of $1.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.73 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.58 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 20.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Fortinet has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.720-0.760 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.160 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 5,355 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.90, for a total value of $476,059.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 52,978,004 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,709,744,555.60. This represents a 0.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, 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, VP Michael Xie sold 2,478 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.89, for a total transaction of $220,269.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 9,927,517 shares in the company, valued at approximately $882,456,986.13. The trade was a 0.02% 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. Corporate insiders own 17.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 4.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 75,581,275 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $6,354,874,000 after purchasing an additional 2,894,355 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Fortinet by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 29,660,558 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,493,860,000 after purchasing an additional 477,397 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,152,917,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 14,504,597 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,151,810,000 after purchasing an additional 893,190 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 17.0% in the 3rd 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. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Fortinet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Fortinet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Fortinet delivered a strong Q1 beat, with revenue up 20% year over year, EPS ahead of estimates, billings up sharply, and full-year guidance raised, signaling stronger demand across cybersecurity and AI-related security products.
• Positive Sentiment: Several analysts turned more constructive, including BTIG’s upgrade to Buy, Rosenblatt’s Buy rating with a higher target, and Citi/Susquehanna/UBS/Piper all raising price targets to around the current share price or above, supporting bullish sentiment.
• Positive Sentiment: Commentary around Fortinet’s gains suggests the results helped dispel “AI disruption” fears and highlighted growing demand tied to a more complex threat environment, which is improving investor confidence in the company’s growth runway.
• Neutral Sentiment: Citigroup and Susquehanna raised their price target to $115 while maintaining Neutral ratings, implying limited upside from current levels even after the rally.
• Neutral Sentiment: RBC Capital and Needham kept Hold-type views, indicating that not all analysts see the valuation as compelling despite the improved fundamentals.
• Negative Sentiment: There were also insider sales by the CEO and a VP, which may temper enthusiasm somewhat, though these trades appear small relative to the stock’s recent move.

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.