Fortinet price target lowered to $101 from $118 at Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs lowered the firm’s price target on Fortinet (FTNT) to $101 from $118 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. The firm believes the post-earnings reaction in the stock is primarily a function of Fortinet’s comment that they are now 40%-50% through the 2026 cohort of firewall refresh customers, but upside to first half of FY25 billings and revenue has been minimal despite this. The lack of upside either means that the business excluding the refresh is trending worse, or that the size of the refresh is smaller than originally expected, according to the analyst, who believes that “the latter is more likely.” While this “means that we are wrong on our thesis of refresh, it also means that the business may be becoming less cyclical as the cohorts layer in over time,” which would be consistent with Palo Alto’s (PANW) view of the industry, the firm added.