NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / September 22, 2025 / Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP ("BFA") announces that it has filed a class action lawsuit for violations of the federal securities laws against Fortinet Inc. ("Fortinet" or the "Company") and certain of the Company’s senior executives. The complaint asserts claims under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 on behalf of investors in Fortinet common stock between November 8, 2024 and August 6, 2025 inclusive (the "Class Period"). The case is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and is captioned Oklahoma Firefighters Pension and Retirement System v. Fortinet, Inc., No. 5:25-cv-08037.
What is the Lawsuit About?
Fortinet is a cybersecurity company best known for its FortiGate firewalls. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies shifted employees to remote work which caused a surge in demand for Fortinet’s products. In 2023 and the first half of 2024, Fortinet’s product revenue growth slowed. However, beginning in the second half of 2024, the Company began to tell investors that it was seeing signs of recovery in the firewall market and that it expected the next "refresh" cycle to begin in 2025.
The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, defendants made materially false and misleading statements concerning the business impact and sustainability of a purportedly "record" round of FortiGate unit upgrades. Defendants represented that this "refresh cycle" was "by far the largest we’ve seen probably ever," would generate "around $400 million to $450 million in product revenue" in 2025 and 2026, and would create strong opportunities to cross-sell additional products and services. Defendants also represented that the refresh cycle would "gain momentum" in the second half of 2025 and beyond.
These statements were materially false and misleading. In truth, Defendants knew that the refresh cycle would never be as lucrative as they represented because it consisted of old products that were a "small percentage" of the Company’s business. Moreover, Defendants misrepresented and concealed that they did not have a clear picture of the true number of FortiGate firewalls that could be upgraded. And while telling investors that the refresh would gain momentum over the course of two years, Fortinet misrepresented and concealed that it had aggressively pushed through roughly half of the refresh in a period of just a few months, by the end of 2Q 2025.
On August 6, 2025, during the Company’s 2Q 2025 earnings call, Defendants revealed that Fortinet was already "approximately 40% to 50% of the way through the 2026 upgrade cycle at the end of the second quarter [of 2025]." Also on the call, Defendants: (i) acknowledged that "it’s hard[] for us to predict" the total number of FortiGates requiring an upgrade; (ii) stated that customers had "excess [firewall] capacity from [purchasing firewalls in] prior years" and therefore did not need to upgrade; and (iii) revealed that the refresh could not have had "much business impact" as it consisted of only a "small percentage" of the Company’s business because the products were "12 to 15 years old" and had been sold at a time when Fortinet’s business was 5-10 times smaller.
This news caused the price of Fortinet stock to decline $21.28 per share, or more than 22%, from $96.58 per share on August 6, 2025, to $75.30 per share on August 7, 2025, resulting in significant harm to investors.
What are my Rights?
Not later than November 21, 2025, which is the first business day after 60 days from the date of the publication of this notice, any member of the purported class may move the Court to serve as Lead Plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain a member of the proposed class. The ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent on serving as Lead Plaintiff.
If you wish to discuss this action or have any questions regarding this notice or your rights or interests, please contact Ross Shikowitz of BFA Law at 212-789-3619, or via email at ross@bfalaw.com.
About BFA Law
BFA is a leading international law firm representing plaintiffs in securities class actions and shareholder litigation. It has been named a top plaintiff law firm by Chambers USA, The Legal 500, and ISS SCAS, and its attorneys have been named "Elite Trial Lawyers" by the National Law Journal, among the top "500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers" by Lawdragon, "Titans of the Plaintiffs’ Bar" by Law360 and "SuperLawyers" by Thomson Reuters. Among its recent notable successes, BFA recovered over $900 million in value from Tesla, Inc.’s Board of Directors, as well as $420 million from Teva Pharmaceutical Ind. Ltd.
SOURCE: Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire
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