Prudential Financial Inc. Sells 490,068 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Prudential Financial Inc. cut its position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 56.2% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 382,641 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 490,068 shares during the quarter. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $40,453,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 10,327 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $976,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC bought a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth about $585,000. AE Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 19.9% during the first quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,358 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $516,000 after acquiring an additional 890 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 30.7% during the first quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 18,610 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,791,000 after acquiring an additional 4,375 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the first quarter valued at approximately $14,804,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of Fortinet stock opened at $79.77 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $59.32 billion, a PE ratio of 31.78, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $83.58 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $91.29. Fortinet, Inc. has a one year low of $70.12 and a one year high of $114.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.33.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The software maker reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $1.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 111.46%. The company’s revenue was up 14.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.63 EPS. Fortinet has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.660-2.700 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 0.730-0.750 EPS. Research analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 3,546 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.53, for a total value of $306,835.38. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 10,492,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $907,874,317.54. The trade was a 0.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,485 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.51, for a total value of $13,710,537.35. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,445,911,452.29. The trade was a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 17.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FTNT has been the topic of several research reports. Cowen downgraded Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on Fortinet from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and issued a $67.00 price objective (down from $78.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $80.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $87.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $90.37.

About Fortinet

Fortinet, Inc provides cybersecurity and convergence of networking and security solutions worldwide. It offers secure networking solutions focus on the convergence of networking and security; network firewall solutions that consist of FortiGate data centers, hyperscale, and distributed firewalls, as well as encrypted applications; wireless LAN solutions; and secure connectivity solutions, including FortiSwitch secure ethernet switches, FortiAP wireless local area network access points, FortiExtender 5G connectivity gateways, and other products.