174,688 Shares in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT Purchased by Rakuten Investment Management Inc.

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 174,688 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $30,738,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Fortinet in the 2nd quarter valued at $9,561,650,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the 2nd quarter worth $1,432,842,000. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the second quarter worth $979,062,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings 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 buying an additional 4,500,194 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the second quarter worth about $656,852,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 3,121 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.49, for a total transaction of $404,138.29. Following the sale, 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed 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. Also, COO John Whittle sold 53,865 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owned 96,987 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,045,529.28. The trade was a 35.71% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 221,304 shares of company stock worth $30,675,309 in the last ninety days. 17.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Fortinet Trading Up 1.5%

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $128.11 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $170.32 and its 200-day moving average price is $128.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The stock has a market cap of $94.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.59, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.04. Fortinet, Inc. has a twelve month low of $73.55 and a twelve month high of $197.13.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on FTNT shares. Sanford C. Bernstein restated a “market perform” rating and set a $145.00 price target (up from $102.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. Arete Research downgraded shares of Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $117.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 21st. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $186.00 target price (down from $203.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, October 29th. Yorkville Ives assumed coverage on Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, October 6th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $225.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating, twenty-four have issued a Hold rating and six have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $147.94.

More Fortinet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Fortinet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Cybersecurity demand associated with agentic AI is described as a tailwind for the industry. Fortinet was also highlighted as a growth stock by Zacks, though the coverage does not identify a new company-specific catalyst. Why Is Fortinet Stock Falling, and is it a Buying Opportunity? Here’s Why Fortinet is a Strong Growth Stock
• Positive Sentiment: Fortinet ranked eighth on a list of large-cap technology stocks favored by billionaire investors, offering a supportive sentiment signal, although the article also discusses investor concerns about technology valuations and AI infrastructure costs. Fortinet ranked among billionaire-backed tech stocks
• Neutral Sentiment: CEO Ken Xie sold 161,483 shares, and VP Michael Xie sold 3,121 shares. Both transactions were under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plans to cover tax withholding on vested equity awards; the CEO’s sale reduced his direct stake by 0.30%, while the VP’s reduced his by 0.03%. CEO Form 4 filing VP Form 4 filing
• Negative Sentiment: Cybersecurity shares have faced broad selling pressure, with Fortinet among the names cited in the sector decline. Concerns about technology valuations and the cost of expanding AI infrastructure could continue to weigh on sentiment despite longer-term demand prospects. Cybersecurity stocks sell off

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.