Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Shares Up 5.9% – Here’s Why

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)’s share price traded up 5.9% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $165.79 and last traded at $165.2390. Approximately 1,223,484 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 80% from the average daily volume of 6,066,300 shares. The stock had previously closed at $156.07.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $160.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Wolfe Research set a $175.00 price objective on Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. BTIG Research raised their target price on Fortinet from $186.00 to $203.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $135.00 price target on shares of Fortinet and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $165.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $150.91.

Fortinet Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $124.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.06. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $158.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $125.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.19.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software maker reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.15. Fortinet had a net margin of 28.17% and a return on equity of 191.54%. The firm had revenue of $2.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.89 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.64 EPS. Fortinet’s revenue was up 25.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Fortinet has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.410-3.470 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.830-0.870 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 3.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,482 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 52,972,372 shares in the company, valued at $8,616,486,029.52. This represents a 0.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available 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, VP Michael Xie sold 3,121 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.63, for a total value of $507,568.23. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 9,918,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,613,022,886.80. This represents a 0.03% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 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. Corporate insiders own 17.60% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its stake in Fortinet by 15,545.1% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 145,097,777 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $22,289,921,000 after purchasing an additional 144,170,346 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the second quarter valued at $9,561,650,000. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 1.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 29,660,558 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,493,860,000 after buying an additional 477,397 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at $1,152,917,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 14,504,597 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,151,810,000 after acquiring an additional 893,190 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Company Profile

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.