Wall Street Zen Upgrades Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) to Buy

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Saturday.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $155.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $70.00 price target (up from $64.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. BTIG Research upped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $150.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $87.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, twenty-three have issued a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $113.97.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $161.61 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $144.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $103.96. Fortinet has a 12 month low of $70.12 and a 12 month high of $170.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $118.40 billion, a PE ratio of 62.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.39 and a beta of 1.09.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The software maker reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $1.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.73 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 160.08% and a net margin of 27.49%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.58 earnings per share. Fortinet has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.720-0.760 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.160 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Fortinet will post 2.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 160,632 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.58, for a total value of $23,384,806.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 52,972,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,711,717,915.76. The trade was a 0.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 3,907 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.44, for a total transaction of $572,141.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 9,923,610 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,453,213,448.40. This represents a 0.04% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 318,387 shares of company stock worth $43,403,063. 17.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 408.3% in the first quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 305 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 245 shares during the last quarter. Wexford Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the third quarter valued at $25,000. Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Palisade Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Ares Financial Consulting LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Fortinet

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.