Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT Shares Newly Bought by Western Financial Corp CA

Western Financial Corp CA bought a new position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 31,785 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $5,682,000. Fortinet comprises approximately 1.9% of Western Financial Corp CA’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest holding.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Fortinet during the second quarter worth $9,561,650,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in Fortinet in the second quarter worth about $1,432,842,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in Fortinet in the second quarter worth approximately $979,062,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 87.4% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,651,024 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $788,682,000 after purchasing an additional 4,500,194 shares in the last quarter. 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 Headlines Impacting Fortinet

Here are the key news stories impacting Fortinet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Atos expanded its partnership with Fortinet from a country-level arrangement to a global engagement, supporting Fortinet’s strategy of securing hybrid- and multicloud environments and potentially broadening enterprise demand. Atos expands partnership with Fortinet
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst commentary remains favorable on Fortinet’s growth prospects, citing strong SASE expansion, rising service revenue and a valuation viewed as more attractive than Cloudflare’s. Barclays also raised its price target from $190 to $210. NET versus FTNT analysis
• Positive Sentiment: Fortinet’s AI-enabled security products and its visibility at GovWare 2026 are reinforcing the long-term growth narrative. Recent earnings also exceeded expectations, with revenue up 25.6% year over year according to the supplied company background.
• Neutral Sentiment: Fortinet is scheduled to report its next results on October 28. Investors may remain cautious ahead of the release, particularly because the stock has recently traded near a 52-week high and expectations are elevated. Fortinet schedules October 28 results
• Negative Sentiment: A report that OpenAI may acquire a cybersecurity startup has pressured major cybersecurity stocks, including Fortinet. The possibility of a well-funded AI company entering the market raises concerns about future competition and sector valuations. Why Fortinet stock slumped
• Negative Sentiment: Some analysts argue that Fortinet’s stock has risen faster than its underlying value and could be substantially overvalued after its strong earnings performance. That concern is particularly relevant given its elevated earnings multiple, increasing the risk of profit-taking. Fortinet valuation downgrade

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on FTNT. Mizuho set a $125.00 target price on Fortinet and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $160.00 price objective (up from $100.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday, August 24th. Barclays set a $210.00 target price on Fortinet and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and set a $175.00 price objective (up from $110.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $156.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,482 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.66, for a total transaction of $26,266,662.12. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 52,972,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,616,486,029.52. The trade was a 0.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a 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. Also, COO John Whittle sold 2,835 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.74, for a total value of $478,377.90. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 96,987 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,365,586.38. This trade represents a 2.84% 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. Insiders have sold a total of 221,303 shares of company stock worth $36,164,034 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 17.60% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Trading Down 3.5%

FTNT stock traded down $6.71 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $184.05. The stock had a trading volume of 3,950,249 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,846,908. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The firm has a market cap of $135.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 64.81, a PEG ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 1.03. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $168.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $141.21. 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, July 29th. The software maker reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.15. Fortinet had a return on equity of 191.54% and a net margin of 28.17%. The business had revenue of $2.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.89 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.64 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 25.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Fortinet has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.410-3.470 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.830-0.870 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 3.10 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Fortinet

Fortinet, Inc develops and provides cybersecurity products and services for businesses, governments, and service providers. The company’s portfolio is designed to protect networks, endpoints, applications, cloud environments, and operational technology from cyber threats.

Its offerings include FortiGate next-generation firewalls, FortiSwitch secure networking switches, FortiAP wireless access points, FortiClient endpoint security, and FortiSASE secure access service edge solutions. Fortinet also provides centralized management and analytics through products such as FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer, along with security operations, threat intelligence, and other subscription-based services through its FortiGuard portfolio.

Founded in 2000, Fortinet serves customers globally through direct sales, channel partners, and managed security service providers.