Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Rating Raised to “Outperform” at Daiwa Securities Group

Daiwa Securities Group upgraded shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) from a neutral rating to an outperform rating in a research note released on Wednesday, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have $150.00 price target on the software maker’s stock.

FTNT has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Piper Sandler set a $140.00 price target on Fortinet and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $145.00 price target (up from $102.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Robert W. Baird set a $165.00 price objective on Fortinet and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada set a $165.00 price objective on Fortinet and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 29th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty-four have issued a Hold rating and six have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $147.53.

Fortinet Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $129.39 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $169.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $129.04. Fortinet has a fifty-two week low of $73.55 and a fifty-two week high of $197.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $95.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.28.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 28th. The software maker reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.05. Fortinet had a net margin of 28.96% and a return on equity of 152.72%. The firm had revenue of $2.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.06 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.74 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Fortinet will post 3.20 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,483 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.31, for a total value of $20,881,366.73. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 52,972,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,849,857,423.32. The trade was a 0.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 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, COO John Whittle sold 53,865 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.44, for a total transaction of $8,911,425.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 96,987 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,045,529.28. This represents a 35.71% 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. Insiders sold 221,304 shares of company stock valued at $30,675,309 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 17.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Dunhill Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Burk Holdings LLC bought a new stake in Fortinet during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC increased its stake in Fortinet by 102.5% during the 2nd quarter. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC now owns 164 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Timbuktu Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Elevation Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in Fortinet by 53.6% during the 2nd quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 215 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Fortinet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Fortinet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Fortinet raised its 2026 outlook, citing demand for AI security and enterprise products. Its latest quarterly results also beat analyst expectations for both earnings and revenue. Q3 earnings-call highlights
• Positive Sentiment: Daiwa Securities upgraded FTNT from “neutral” to “outperform” and set a $150 price target, signaling confidence in potential recovery. Daiwa analyst rating
• Neutral Sentiment: Zacks Research lowered its rating from “strong buy” to “hold,” underscoring divided analyst views. Fortinet was also included in a list of large-cap tech stocks favored by billionaire investors, though that mention is not a company-specific catalyst. Analyst and earnings coverage Billionaire-backed tech stocks
• Neutral Sentiment: CEO Ken Xie and VP Michael Xie sold shares through pre-arranged plans to cover tax withholding on vested equity awards; the sales were small relative to their remaining holdings. Insider transaction details
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned about slower product growth, delays in service revenue and rising component costs. Those concerns, along with broader technology-sector worries about growth valuations and AI infrastructure spending, contributed to sharp recent selling in FTNT despite the earnings beat and raised outlook. Q3 earnings-call outlook and challenges

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.