Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Rating Upgraded by Zacks Research

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) was upgraded by equities researchers at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $215.00 price objective (up from $160.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Monday. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. DZ Bank lowered shares of Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $125.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, May 19th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, twenty-three have assigned a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $112.26.

Fortinet Trading Down 1.4%

Fortinet stock opened at $164.51 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $142.29 and a 200-day moving average of $102.83. Fortinet has a one year low of $70.12 and a one year high of $170.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 1.07. The company has a market cap of $120.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.52, a P/E/G ratio of 4.54 and a beta of 1.09.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, COO John Whittle sold 146,015 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.41, for a total transaction of $18,749,786.15. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 94,724 shares in the company, valued at $12,163,508.84. This trade represents a 60.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 3,907 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.44, for a total value of $572,141.08. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 9,923,610 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,453,213,448.40. This represents a 0.04% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 318,387 shares of company stock valued at $43,403,063 in the last ninety days. 17.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the second quarter valued at approximately $201,000. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC increased its stake in Fortinet by 5.8% during the 2nd quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 58,043 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $9,228,000 after acquiring an additional 3,157 shares during the period. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC raised its holdings in Fortinet by 4.9% in the 2nd quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 64,550 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $9,916,000 after acquiring an additional 2,994 shares in the last quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 2nd quarter valued at $105,000. Finally, Fulton Bank N.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 2nd quarter worth $325,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Fortinet

Here are the key news stories impacting Fortinet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Zacks upgraded Fortinet to Strong Buy, citing improving earnings expectations and growing optimism around the company’s outlook. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Fortinet announced new FortiEndpoint capabilities aimed at AI security, data protection, and easier operations, reinforcing its positioning in the fast-growing AI cybersecurity market. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: The company also named TD SYNNEX as a global distribution partner, which could widen Fortinet’s reach and support future sales growth. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Broader cybersecurity-sector strength is also helping FTNT, with articles noting that AI infrastructure spending and rising cyber threats are boosting demand for security vendors like Fortinet. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Multiple commentary pieces compared Fortinet with Palo Alto Networks and Microsoft, highlighting Fortinet’s AI-security exposure but also raising valuation questions about how much growth is already priced in. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: IBM’s spending warning and the broader selloff in data-center-related names helped lift cybersecurity stocks, including Fortinet, as investors rotated toward security plays. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: One marketwatch item noted Fortinet outperformed some competitors despite a weak session, suggesting the stock is still facing some pressure even amid the positive catalysts. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Some valuation-focused commentary says FTNT still trades at a premium despite its AI-security growth story, which may limit upside if expectations cool. Article Title

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.