Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT Shares Sold by Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd

Key Points

• Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management reduced its Fortinet stake by 5% in the third quarter, selling 9,323 shares and retaining 178,351 shares valued at approximately $31.9 million. Institutional investors own 83.71% of Fortinet.
• Analyst sentiment remains mixed: Fortinet has a consensus “Hold” rating and an average price target of $160.92, despite BTIG raising its target to $203 and assigning a “Buy” rating.
• Fortinet reported strong quarterly results, with earnings of $0.90 per share versus estimates of $0.75 and revenue of $2.05 billion, up 25.6% year over year. Shares opened at $171.50, while insiders sold 221,303 shares worth $36.2 million during the quarter.

Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lessened its stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 5.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 178,351 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 9,323 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd's holdings in Fortinet were worth $31,882,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Midway Capital Research & Management purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 3rd quarter worth $434,000. Family Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the third quarter worth $302,000. CWA Asset Management Group LLC increased its position in Fortinet by 126.9% during the third quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 102,596 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $18,340,000 after acquiring an additional 57,379 shares during the last quarter. Investment Research Partners LLC increased its position in Fortinet by 11.9% during the third quarter. Investment Research Partners LLC now owns 2,475 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $442,000 after acquiring an additional 264 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Maia Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 3.7% in the third quarter. Maia Wealth LLC now owns 37,922 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $6,779,000 after acquiring an additional 1,345 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on FTNT. Citigroup raised their target price on Fortinet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Evercore set a $165.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. BTIG Research upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $186.00 to $203.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Scotiabank reissued a "sector perform" rating and issued a $163.00 price objective (up from $110.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, DZ Bank lowered shares of Fortinet from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $160.92.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Fortinet news, 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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 96,987 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,045,529.28. This represents a 35.71% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 3,121 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.63, for a total value of $507,568.23. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 9,918,360 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,613,022,886.80. This represents a 0.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 221,303 shares of company stock valued at $36,164,034. Company insiders own 17.60% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Price Performance

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $171.50 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12 month low of $73.55 and a 12 month high of $197.13. The stock has a market cap of $125.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.39, a PEG ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.03. The company's 50 day moving average is $169.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $143.93.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software maker reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $2.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.89 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 28.17% and a return on equity of 191.54%. The company's revenue was up 25.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.64 earnings per share. 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 anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 3.10 earnings per share for the current 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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