Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT Stock: Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Decreases Holdings

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. decreased its position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,469,428 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 35,628 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $262,675,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $9,561,650,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in Fortinet during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,432,842,000. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in Fortinet during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $979,062,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in Fortinet by 87.4% during the 1st 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in Fortinet during the second quarter worth approximately $656,852,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet News Roundup

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.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 3,121 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.63, for a total transaction of $507,568.23. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 9,918,360 shares in the company, valued at $1,613,022,886.80. This represents a 0.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, 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. Also, COO John Whittle sold 53,865 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.44, for a total value of $8,911,425.60. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 96,987 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,045,529.28. This represents a 35.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 221,303 shares of company stock valued at $36,164,034. Company insiders own 17.60% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $136.08 on Friday. The stock 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, Inc. has a 52-week low of $73.55 and a 52-week high of $197.13. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $171.34 and its 200 day moving average price is $128.28. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on Fortinet from $160.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Wolfe Research set a $175.00 price objective on Fortinet in a report on Thursday, July 30th. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, October 15th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $165.00 target price on shares of Fortinet and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Fortinet from $160.00 to $115.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating, twenty-four have given a Hold rating and six have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortinet presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $147.94.

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.