Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT Stock: VestGen Advisors LLC Reduces Stake

VestGen Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 62.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,134 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 10,115 shares during the period. VestGen Advisors LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $1,097,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 2nd quarter worth $9,561,650,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 2nd quarter worth $1,432,842,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the second quarter worth $979,062,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 87.4% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,651,024 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $788,682,000 after purchasing an additional 4,500,194 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the second quarter worth $656,852,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Fortinet

Here are the key news stories impacting Fortinet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Fortinet reported third-quarter revenue of approximately $2.08 billion, up 20.5% year over year, and adjusted EPS of $0.91, exceeding consensus estimates. Billings increased 29%, while operating margins reached a record. Fortinet Q3 Earnings and Revenues Beat Estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Management raised full-year 2026 guidance to $8.1 billion-$8.2 billion in revenue and $3.54-$3.58 in EPS. Fourth-quarter EPS guidance of $0.93-$0.95 also exceeds the consensus estimate of $0.86. Fortinet Raises Guidance
• Positive Sentiment: The board authorized an additional $1.2 billion in share repurchases, and quarterly free cash flow was approximately $865 million. Analysts at TD Cowen, Rosenblatt and Truist retained bullish ratings despite lowering their price targets. Fortinet Adds to Buyback Program
• Neutral Sentiment: Fortinet is technically oversold after a sharp multi-week decline, while rising earnings estimates could support a rebound. However, the technical signal does not resolve concerns about the company’s growth mix. Fortinet May See a Trend Reversal
• Negative Sentiment: Service revenue grew only 13%, versus 37% growth in product revenue. Investors are concerned that hardware sales tied to AI infrastructure are not converting into recurring services quickly enough, reducing near-term revenue visibility. The Real Reason Fortinet Dropped
• Negative Sentiment: Management lowered its services outlook, while fourth-quarter revenue guidance implies growth deceleration from the third quarter. Normalizing pricing benefits, higher inventory costs and longer component lead times added to investor concerns.
• Negative Sentiment: Wells Fargo cut its price target to $115 and assigned an underweight rating; Susquehanna lowered its target to $145 and rated the shares neutral. Other firms, including Bank of America, Citi, Barclays and Scotiabank, also reduced targets or ratings. Analysts Cut Fortinet Forecasts
• Negative Sentiment: The broader technology and cybersecurity sell-off is amplifying the reaction, despite a major cryptocurrency hack highlighting demand for digital security. Investors are also questioning whether Fortinet’s premium valuation remains justified as growth slows.

Fortinet Stock Down 2.2%

FTNT opened at $136.08 on Friday. Fortinet, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $73.55 and a fifty-two week high of $197.13. The business has a 50-day moving average of $171.34 and a 200-day moving average of $128.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The company has a market capitalization of $99.84 billion, a PE ratio of 44.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 1.03.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The software maker reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.05. Fortinet had a net margin of 28.96% and a return on equity of 152.72%. The company had revenue of $2.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.06 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.74 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 3.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on FTNT shares. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Fortinet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Piper Sandler set a $140.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Arete Research lowered shares of Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $117.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 21st. Mizuho set a $118.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $145.00 target price (down from $185.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday, October 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating, twenty-four have assigned a Hold rating and six have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $147.94.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 3,121 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.63, for a total value of $507,568.23. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 9,918,360 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,613,022,886.80. The trade was a 0.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 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 the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.44, for a total transaction of $8,911,425.60. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 96,987 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,045,529.28. This trade represents a 35.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 221,303 shares of company stock valued at $36,164,034. Insiders own 17.60% of the company’s stock.

About Fortinet

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.