Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Price Expected to Rise, JPMorgan Chase & Co. Analyst Says

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price target boosted by research analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $118.00 to $140.00 in a research note issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “underweight” rating on the software maker’s stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s price objective would suggest a potential downside of 21.86% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley reiterated a “positive” rating and set a $136.00 price target (up from $133.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. William Blair restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Capital One Financial boosted their target price on Fortinet from $150.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Fortinet from $165.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $135.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Hold rating and six have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $162.36.

Fortinet Stock Up 3.6%

NASDAQ FTNT traded up $6.18 on Friday, hitting $179.16. 951,869 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,777,145. The company has a market cap of $131.45 billion, a PE ratio of 62.97, a PEG ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 1.03. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $170.07 and a 200-day moving average of $145.84. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Fortinet has a 12 month low of $73.55 and a 12 month high of $197.13.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its 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 return on equity of 191.54% and a net margin of 28.17%. The company had revenue of $2.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.89 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.64 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter 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. As a group, analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 3.10 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,482 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 52,972,372 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,616,486,029.52. This trade represents a 0.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed 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, COO John Whittle sold 53,865 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.44, for a total transaction of $8,911,425.60. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 96,987 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,045,529.28. This represents a 35.71% 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. Insiders sold a total of 221,303 shares of company stock valued at $36,164,034 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 17.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the second quarter worth approximately $492,000. Wealth Enhancement Trust Services Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 83.8% in the 3rd quarter. Wealth Enhancement Trust Services Inc. now owns 22,326 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,991,000 after acquiring an additional 10,180 shares during the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 21.4% in the 1st quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 75,491 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $6,169,000 after purchasing an additional 13,294 shares in the last quarter. Vista Investment Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 53.1% in the 2nd quarter. Vista Investment Partners LLC now owns 49,058 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $7,537,000 after purchasing an additional 17,018 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 35.5% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 32,402 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $5,792,000 after purchasing an additional 8,488 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 networks, endpoints, applications, cloud environments and operational technology systems. The company’s portfolio includes next-generation firewalls, secure networking products, endpoint security, web application security, email security, identity and access solutions, and security information and event management tools.

Its product offerings include FortiGate network security appliances and cloud-based firewalls, along with FortiSwitch, FortiAP and FortiExtender solutions for secure connectivity.