Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Shares Up 9% – Still a Buy?

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) shares were up 9% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $171.60 and last traded at $171.7230. Approximately 2,537,934 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 59% from the average daily volume of 6,191,493 shares. The stock had previously closed at $157.54.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FTNT has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $190.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $135.00 target price on shares of Fortinet and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Barclays set a $190.00 target price on shares of Fortinet and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Zacks Research raised shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Finally, Compass Point set a $100.00 price target on Fortinet in a report on Monday, May 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $150.91.

Fortinet Price Performance

The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $156.69 and a 200-day simple moving average of $119.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company has a market cap of $126.63 billion, a PE ratio of 60.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 1.07.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released 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. Fortinet had a net margin of 28.17% and a return on equity of 191.54%. The business had revenue of $2.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.89 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.64 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 25.6% on a year-over-year basis. Fortinet has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.410-3.470 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.830-0.870 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 3.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 3,121 shares of Fortinet 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 transaction, the vice president directly owned 9,918,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,613,022,886.80. The trade was a 0.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 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 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 52,972,372 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,616,486,029.52. The trade was a 0.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. Insiders have sold 329,142 shares of company stock valued at $50,731,178 in the last three months. 17.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Expressive Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $646,000. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet in the second quarter valued at $492,000. Leonteq Securities AG purchased a new position in Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at $10,422,000. Eurizon Capital SGR S.p.A. acquired a new position in Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth $14,638,000. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in Fortinet by 156.6% during the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 390,492 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $31,009,000 after purchasing an additional 238,299 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Fortinet

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.