Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) in a research note published on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage issued an underweight rating and a $64.00 price objective on the software maker’s stock.

FTNT has been the subject of several other research reports. HSBC cut Fortinet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Daiwa Securities Group lowered shares of Fortinet from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $86.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, November 12th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Fortinet from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $88.62.

Fortinet Stock Up 2.4%

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $81.10 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $80.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $81.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.17. The firm has a market cap of $60.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 1.05. Fortinet has a 1 year low of $70.12 and a 1 year high of $109.33.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The software maker reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.86 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 124.21% and a net margin of 27.26%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.74 EPS. Fortinet has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 0.590-0.630 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 2.940-3.000 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 343,106 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.42, for a total value of $27,935,690.52. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 10,210,282 shares in the company, valued at approximately $831,321,160.44. This trade represents a 3.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 175,737 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.42, for a total value of $14,308,506.54. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,396,385 shares in the company, valued at $4,184,693,666.70. This trade represents a 0.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 18.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 75,581,275 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $6,354,874,000 after buying an additional 2,894,355 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 1.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 29,660,558 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,493,860,000 after acquiring an additional 477,397 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 5.2% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,916,974 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,783,091,000 after purchasing an additional 828,569 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,640,900,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in Fortinet by 6.6% during 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. 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.