Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT Position Boosted by Compass Financial Management LLC

Key Points

• Compass Financial Management increased its Fortinet stake by 312% in the third quarter, ending with 12,717 shares valued at about $2.27 million. Other institutional investors also added to positions; institutions own 83.71% of the stock.
• Fortinet beat quarterly earnings and revenue estimates, with revenue up 20.5% year over year, and raised its 2026 outlook. However, concerns about product growth, service-revenue timing and component costs have weighed on shares.
• Analyst views remain mixed: the consensus rating is Hold, with a $147.53 average price target. Insiders reported share sales, including CEO Ken Xie’s sale under a pre-arranged plan to cover tax withholding on vested awards.

Compass Financial Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 312.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,717 shares of the software maker's stock after purchasing an additional 9,630 shares during the quarter. Compass Financial Management LLC's holdings in Fortinet were worth $2,273,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Birinyi Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Fortinet during the third quarter worth about $4,338,000. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 2nd quarter valued at about $492,000. Wealth Enhancement Trust Services Inc. raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 83.8% during the third quarter. Wealth Enhancement Trust Services Inc. now owns 22,326 shares of the software maker's stock worth $3,991,000 after acquiring an additional 10,180 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its position in Fortinet by 35.5% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 32,402 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $5,792,000 after buying an additional 8,488 shares during the period. Finally, Vista Investment Partners LLC grew its position in Fortinet by 53.1% during the 2nd quarter. Vista Investment Partners LLC now owns 49,058 shares of the software maker's stock worth $7,537,000 after acquiring an additional 17,018 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,483 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.31, for a total value of $20,881,366.73. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 52,972,372 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,849,857,423.32. This represents a 0.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, 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 on Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.44, for a total transaction of $8,911,425.60. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 96,987 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $16,045,529.28. The trade was a 35.71% decrease in their position. 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 three months, insiders sold 221,304 shares of company stock worth $30,675,309. Company insiders own 17.60% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on FTNT. Yorkville Ives began coverage on Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, October 6th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $225.00 price target for the company. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed a "positive" rating and issued a $136.00 price target (up from $133.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. UBS Group restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. Daiwa Securities Group upgraded shares of Fortinet from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $150.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a "market perform" rating and issued a $145.00 target price (up from $102.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, September 17th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty-four have given a Hold rating and six have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $147.53.

Fortinet News Roundup

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

Fortinet Stock Performance

FTNT opened at $129.39 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $95.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $169.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $129.04. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52-week low of $73.55 and a 52-week high of $197.13.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The software maker reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $2.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.06 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 152.72% and a net margin of 28.96%. Fortinet's quarterly revenue was up 20.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.74 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 3.20 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.

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