Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Gets Price Target Cut from TD Cowen

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price objective reduced by TD Cowen from $225.00 to $190.00 in a research note published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the software maker’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on FTNT. Bank of America lowered Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $140.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Thursday. Robert W. Baird set a $165.00 target price on Fortinet and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Wall Street Zen raised Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 10th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $165.00 target price on Fortinet and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lowered their price target on Fortinet from $195.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. One equities 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Fortinet currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $147.94.

Fortinet Trading Down 2.2%

Fortinet stock opened at $136.08 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The company has a market capitalization of $99.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.18, a PEG ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 1.03. Fortinet has a one year low of $73.55 and a one year high of $197.13. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $171.34 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $128.28.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The software maker reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.05. Fortinet had a return on equity of 152.72% and a net margin of 28.96%. The company had revenue of $2.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.06 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.74 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 20.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 3.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other news, COO John Whittle sold 2,835 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.74, for a total value of $478,377.90. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 96,987 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,365,586.38. The trade was a 2.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,482 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 52,972,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,616,486,029.52. This represents a 0.30% 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. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold 221,303 shares of company stock worth $36,164,034 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 17.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 11.1% during the 3rd quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 23,293 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,193,000 after acquiring an additional 2,322 shares in the last quarter. Ascent Group LLC increased its stake in Fortinet by 9.8% in the third quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 4,420 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $790,000 after acquiring an additional 393 shares during the period. 3Chopt Investment Partners LLC raised its position in Fortinet by 13.1% in the third quarter. 3Chopt Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,555 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $278,000 after purchasing an additional 180 shares in the last quarter. Compass Financial Management LLC raised its position in Fortinet by 312.0% in the third quarter. Compass Financial Management LLC now owns 12,717 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,273,000 after purchasing an additional 9,630 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Focused Wealth Management Inc acquired a new position in Fortinet in the third quarter worth about $216,000. Institutional investors own 83.71% 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 approximately $2.08 billion, up 20.5% year over year, and adjusted EPS of $0.91, exceeding consensus estimates. Billings increased 29%, while operating margins reached a record. Fortinet Q3 Earnings and Revenues Beat Estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Management raised full-year 2026 guidance to $8.1 billion-$8.2 billion in revenue and $3.54-$3.58 in EPS. Fourth-quarter EPS guidance of $0.93-$0.95 also exceeds the consensus estimate of $0.86. Fortinet Raises Guidance
• Positive Sentiment: The board authorized an additional $1.2 billion in share repurchases, and quarterly free cash flow was approximately $865 million. Analysts at TD Cowen, Rosenblatt and Truist retained bullish ratings despite lowering their price targets. Fortinet Adds to Buyback Program
• Neutral Sentiment: Fortinet is technically oversold after a sharp multi-week decline, while rising earnings estimates could support a rebound. However, the technical signal does not resolve concerns about the company’s growth mix. Fortinet May See a Trend Reversal
• Negative Sentiment: Service revenue grew only 13%, versus 37% growth in product revenue. Investors are concerned that hardware sales tied to AI infrastructure are not converting into recurring services quickly enough, reducing near-term revenue visibility. The Real Reason Fortinet Dropped
• Negative Sentiment: Management lowered its services outlook, while fourth-quarter revenue guidance implies growth deceleration from the third quarter. Normalizing pricing benefits, higher inventory costs and longer component lead times added to investor concerns.
• Negative Sentiment: Wells Fargo cut its price target to $115 and assigned an underweight rating; Susquehanna lowered its target to $145 and rated the shares neutral. Other firms, including Bank of America, Citi, Barclays and Scotiabank, also reduced targets or ratings. Analysts Cut Fortinet Forecasts
• Negative Sentiment: The broader technology and cybersecurity sell-off is amplifying the reaction, despite a major cryptocurrency hack highlighting demand for digital security. Investors are also questioning whether Fortinet’s premium valuation remains justified as growth slows.

Fortinet Company Profile

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.