Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wedbush

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wedbush to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Zacks reports.

FTNT has been the subject of several other research reports. Scotiabank reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $163.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Mizuho set a $125.00 target price on Fortinet and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $180.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, July 30th. BTIG Research lifted their price target on Fortinet from $186.00 to $203.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada set a $185.00 price objective on Fortinet and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating, twenty have given a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $150.91.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $156.07 on Thursday. Fortinet has a 1 year low of $73.55 and a 1 year high of $173.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $114.51 billion, a PE ratio of 54.95, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.06. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $158.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $125.63.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software maker reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $2.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.89 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 28.17% and a return on equity of 191.54%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 25.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.64 EPS. Fortinet has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.410-3.470 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.830-0.870 EPS. Analysts predict that Fortinet will post 3.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 3,121 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.63, for a total value of $507,568.23. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 9,918,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,613,022,886.80. This represents a 0.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 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, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,482 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.66, for a total transaction of $26,266,662.12. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 52,972,372 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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. Company insiders own 17.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 408.3% during the first quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 305 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 245 shares during the last quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. Burk Holdings LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 102.5% during the 2nd quarter. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC now owns 164 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the period. Finally, Wexford Capital LP purchased a new stake in Fortinet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortinet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Fortinet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Fortinet was named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Hybrid Mesh Firewall and ranked highest for Ability to Execute for the second consecutive year. The recognition supports Fortinet’s competitive position in enterprise cybersecurity, particularly its integrated networking, cloud, AI and security offerings. Fortinet Named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant Report for Hybrid Mesh Firewall
• Positive Sentiment: Recent analysis cited Fortinet’s raised 2026 guidance, demand for AI-security products and expanding margins as fundamental support for the stock. Its latest reported quarter also showed revenue growth of approximately 26% year over year and an earnings beat, reinforcing the company’s growth case. Is FTNT Stock Worth Buying at a Premium P/S or Should Investors Wait?
• Neutral Sentiment: Fortinet recently advanced while the broader market declined, indicating relative strength, but the move does not alter the larger debate over whether the company’s valuation fully reflects its growth prospects. Fortinet Advances While Market Declines
• Negative Sentiment: Wedbush identified CrowdStrike as its leading cybersecurity pick while downgrading Fortinet, along with Check Point, Varonis and Telos. The downgrade likely adds selling pressure by raising concerns about relative upside after Fortinet’s substantial rally and elevated valuation. Wedbush Cybersecurity Downgrades
• Negative Sentiment: Fortinet’s premium price-to-sales valuation remains a concern, particularly with some analyst price targets below the current trading range. Reported insider activity also shows executives selling shares without disclosed open-market purchases during the past six months, which may weigh modestly on sentiment.

About Fortinet

Fortinet, Inc develops cybersecurity products and services designed to protect enterprise, small and midsize business, service provider, and government networks. Its portfolio covers network security, endpoint protection, cloud security, secure access service edge (SASE), security operations, and zero-trust access.

The company’s offerings include FortiGate next-generation firewalls, FortiSwitch secure networking switches, FortiAP wireless access points, FortiClient endpoint security, and FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer management and analytics tools.