Mizuho Has Lowered Expectations for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Price

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price objective reduced by equities researchers at Mizuho from $74.00 to $70.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “underperform” rating on the software maker’s stock. Mizuho’s target price would indicate a potential downside of 11.11% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday, February 6th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $90.00 target price on Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $70.00 target price (up from $66.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, December 18th. Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $64.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Fortinet from $72.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $87.68.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $78.75 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $81.72 and its 200-day moving average price is $81.84. Fortinet has a 12 month low of $70.12 and a 12 month high of $109.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $58.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.41, a PEG ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The software maker reported $0.81 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.86 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.74 earnings per share. The business’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. Equities research analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 175,737 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,396,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,184,693,666.70. The trade was a 0.34% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 343,106 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.42, for a total value of $27,935,690.52. Following the sale, the vice president owned 10,210,282 shares in the company, valued at approximately $831,321,160.44. The trade was a 3.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 17.20% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake 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 acquiring an additional 2,894,355 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 29,660,558 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,493,860,000 after purchasing an additional 477,397 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,152,917,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted 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, Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 17.0% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,816,519 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $909,453,000 after buying an additional 1,568,337 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.