Freedom Capital Downgrades Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) to Hold

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) was downgraded by equities researchers at Freedom Capital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and set a $90.00 price objective (up from $85.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $90.00 price target (up previously from $85.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $83.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday, February 6th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $90.00 price objective on Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their target price on Fortinet from $72.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, twenty-three have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Fortinet has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $89.42.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $80.69 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $80.54 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $81.70. Fortinet has a fifty-two week low of $70.12 and a fifty-two week high of $114.63. The company has a market capitalization of $60.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.17.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The software maker reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 124.21% and a net margin of 27.26%.The company had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.86 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.74 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.8% on a year-over-year basis. Fortinet has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 0.590-0.630 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 2.940-3.000 EPS. Analysts expect that Fortinet will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 343,106 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.42, for a total transaction of $27,935,690.52. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 10,210,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $831,321,160.44. This represents a 3.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 175,737 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.42, for a total transaction of $14,308,506.54. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 51,396,385 shares in the company, valued at $4,184,693,666.70. This represents a 0.34% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 17.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of FTNT. LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Financial Consulate Inc. purchased a new position in Fortinet during the third quarter valued at $25,000. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. purchased a new position in Fortinet during the third quarter valued at $25,000. Pinnacle Holdings LLC bought a new stake in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Finally, Ameriflex Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

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.