VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Purchases New Stake in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 436,047 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $66,986,000. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al owned 0.06% of Fortinet as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in FTNT. Expressive Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at about $646,000. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet in the second quarter valued at approximately $492,000. Leonteq Securities AG purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $10,422,000. Eurizon Capital SGR S.p.A. acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $14,638,000. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in Fortinet by 156.6% in the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 390,492 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $31,009,000 after acquiring an additional 238,299 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortinet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Fortinet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Fortinet was highlighted as a growth-at-a-reasonable-price (GARP) stock, with analysts pointing to its 2026 growth outlook, rising earnings estimates and expanding AI-security opportunity. Zacks.com featured highlights including Fortinet
• Positive Sentiment: Fortinet was also included among founder-led technology companies with long-term innovation and growth potential, reinforcing the investment case around its leadership and strategic direction. Founder-led companies redefining technology and growth
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple Zacks features identify FTNT as a GARP candidate, suggesting analysts view its earnings and revenue prospects as attractive relative to its valuation and peer group. GARP stocks investors can consider
• Positive Sentiment: Fortinet continues to benefit from broader demand for AI-driven cybersecurity. Its latest reported quarter exceeded earnings and revenue estimates, with revenue increasing 25.6% year over year, supporting the bullish outlook.
• Neutral Sentiment: ControlMonkey added backup and disaster-recovery support for Fortinet security configurations. The announcement improves recoverability for customers but appears unlikely to materially affect Fortinet’s near-term financial results. ControlMonkey extends recovery to the security stack
• Negative Sentiment: A sharp reaction to Palo Alto Networks’ results despite strong growth highlighted how demanding investor expectations have become for cybersecurity stocks. That sector-wide valuation risk may be limiting upside for Fortinet even amid favorable company-specific commentary. Cybersecurity stocks react to Palo Alto results

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,482 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at 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, VP Michael Xie sold 3,121 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,613,022,886.80. This represents a 0.03% 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. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. 17.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Fortinet stock opened at $156.29 on Monday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $73.55 and a 12-month high of $173.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $114.67 billion, a PE ratio of 55.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.06. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $158.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $123.26.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software maker reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 quarter last year, the business posted $0.64 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 25.6% on a year-over-year basis. 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, equities research analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 3.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FTNT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $180.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $185.00 price target on shares of Fortinet and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Scotiabank restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $163.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $175.00 target price (up from $110.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Susquehanna upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating, nineteen have given a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $150.91.

Fortinet Profile

Fortinet, Inc (NASDAQ: FTNT) is a multinational cybersecurity company that develops and delivers integrated security solutions for enterprise, service provider and government customers worldwide. Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, the company was co‑founded by Ken Xie and Michael Xie. Ken Xie serves as chairman and chief executive officer, and the company operates through a global sales, channel and services organization to support customers across the Americas, EMEA and Asia‑Pacific.

Fortinet’s product portfolio centers on network security appliances and software, with its FortiGate next‑generation firewalls and the FortiOS operating system forming a core platform.