Piper Sandler upgrades Fortinet on firewall refresh optimism

Investing.com -- Piper Sandler upgraded Fortinet Inc (NASDAQ: FTNT) to "overweight" with a $120 price target given strong prospects for a firewall refresh cycle set to accelerate in 2025.

The brokerage sees Fortinet as the "best way to play" this trend, driven by improving IT spending and increased focus on cybersecurity amid geopolitical tensions and the rise of generative AI threats.

The note highlighted elevated CIO optimism for security spending, marking the most bullish survey responses in a decade. Piper Sandler also flagged consolidation in security, with Real Time Application Protection Platforms (RTAPP) expected to gain prominence.

Fortinet joins Piper Sandler's top 2025 picks, with stocks like Atlassian (NASDAQ: TEAM), GitLab, SentinelOne (NYSE: S), and Zscaler (NASDAQ: ZS).

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