Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock: Insider Michael Xie Sells 3,121 Shares

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) VP Michael Xie sold 3,121 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.49, for a total transaction of $404,138.29. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 9,918,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,284,328,436.40. The trade was a 0.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available 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.

Fortinet Stock Up 1.0%

FTNT stock opened at $129.39 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $95.06 billion, a PE ratio of 42.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a fifty day moving average of $169.84 and a 200-day moving average of $129.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.40. Fortinet, Inc. has a one year low of $73.55 and a one year high of $197.13.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The software maker reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $2.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.06 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 28.96% and a return on equity of 152.72%. The business’s revenue was up 20.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.74 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 3.20 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on FTNT. Morgan Stanley reissued a “positive” rating and set a $136.00 target price (up from $133.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $145.00 price objective (down from $185.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Monday, October 26th. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on Fortinet from $160.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 30th. DZ Bank downgraded Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and set a $140.00 target price (down from $155.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty-four have given a Hold rating and six have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $147.53.

Fortinet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Fortinet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Fortinet raised its 2026 outlook, citing demand for AI security and enterprise products. Its latest quarterly results also beat analyst expectations for both earnings and revenue. Q3 earnings-call highlights
• Positive Sentiment: Daiwa Securities upgraded FTNT from “neutral” to “outperform” and set a $150 price target, signaling confidence in potential recovery. Daiwa analyst rating
• Neutral Sentiment: Zacks Research lowered its rating from “strong buy” to “hold,” underscoring divided analyst views. Fortinet was also included in a list of large-cap tech stocks favored by billionaire investors, though that mention is not a company-specific catalyst. Analyst and earnings coverage Billionaire-backed tech stocks
• Neutral Sentiment: CEO Ken Xie and VP Michael Xie sold shares through pre-arranged plans to cover tax withholding on vested equity awards; the sales were small relative to their remaining holdings. Insider transaction details
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned about slower product growth, delays in service revenue and rising component costs. Those concerns, along with broader technology-sector worries about growth valuations and AI infrastructure spending, contributed to sharp recent selling in FTNT despite the earnings beat and raised outlook. Q3 earnings-call outlook and challenges

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FTNT. Lido Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 7.0% during the third quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 192,248 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $34,366,000 after purchasing an additional 12,564 shares in the last quarter. Keybank National Association OH grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 0.8% in the third quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 12,933 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,312,000 after buying an additional 98 shares in the last quarter. D Orazio & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the third quarter valued at about $201,000. New York Life Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 2.7% in the third quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 106,436 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $19,026,000 after buying an additional 2,815 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gen Wealth Partners Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $41,000. Hedge funds and other 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.