BTIG Research Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its target price raised by research analysts at BTIG Research from $125.00 to $150.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the software maker’s stock. BTIG Research’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 12.00% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on the stock. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Barclays set a $115.00 target price on shares of Fortinet and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Fortinet from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 19th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, twenty-four have assigned a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortinet has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $102.69.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $133.93 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. Fortinet has a 12 month low of $70.12 and a 12 month high of $134.19. The company has a market cap of $98.12 billion, a PE ratio of 51.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $93.06 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $85.25.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The software maker reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.20. Fortinet had a net margin of 27.49% and a return on equity of 160.08%. The business had revenue of $1.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.73 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.58 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 20.1% on a year-over-year basis. Fortinet has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.720-0.760 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.160 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 2.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 2,478 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.89, for a total value of $220,269.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 9,927,517 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $882,456,986.13. This represents a 0.02% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, 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 5,355 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.90, for a total transaction of $476,059.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 52,978,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,709,744,555.60. This represents a 0.01% 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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 153,848 shares of company stock valued at $19,446,115. Company insiders own 17.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 75,581,275 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $6,354,874,000 after buying an additional 2,894,355 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 29,660,558 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,493,860,000 after buying an additional 477,397 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth $1,152,917,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 6.6% in 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 buying an additional 893,190 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP lifted its stake in Fortinet by 45.5% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 11,506,173 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $940,284,000 after purchasing an additional 3,598,487 shares in the last quarter. 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.