Why Fortinet Stock Zoomed Almost 9% Higher This Week

Why Fortinet Stock Zoomed Almost 9% Higher This Week

Eric Volkman, The Motley Fool

Sat, September 19, 2026 at 2:09 AM GMT+3 2 min read

• FTNT -1.59%
• NVDA +1.34%

A favorable environment for peer stocks and an analyst's price target raise combined to lift Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT) stock higher this week. Over the five trading days, the cybersecurity company's equity rose by nearly 9%.

Rising security concerns

Worries about the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities -- in some cases voiced this week by leading developers themselves -- led investors to load up on cybersecurity titles.

Missed AI's "Act 1"? Act 2 Could Be 15x Bigger. Most investors think they missed the AI boat because they didn't buy Nvidia in 2005. But according to our analysts, we're only at the end of "Act 1"—the R&D phase. "Act 2" is the global rollout. Continue »

Should fears of AI spiraling out of control be realized, it's almost certain that the systems operated by such companies will be an important line of defense protecting valuable assets.

On Thursday, Bernstein SocGen Group analyst Peter Weed made a significant change to his Fortinet price target. He lifted it to $145 per share from $102, which helped improve sentiment on the stock, even though the analyst maintained his equivalent of a hold recommendation.

A singular operator

I've been bullish on cybersecurity stocks for quite some time, and I think they've recently been getting their due thanks to that growing awareness of how necessary their services are -- and will be. Fortinet is a seasoned, reliable, and trusted company in this space, and has a real advantage over peers with its proprietary custom silicon and its single operating system, FortiOS.

Should you buy stock in Fortinet right now?

Before you buy stock in Fortinet, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Fortinet wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $406,141!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,347,745!*

Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 940% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 211% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of September 18, 2026.

Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Fortinet. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Why Fortinet Stock Zoomed Almost 9% Higher This Week was originally published by The Motley Fool