Willis Investment Counsel raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT – Free Report) by 7.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 249,169 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 18,300 shares during the quarter. Fortinet accounts for approximately 1.9% of Willis Investment Counsel’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Willis Investment Counsel’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $44,541,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the second quarter worth about $9,561,650,000. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 45.5% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 11,506,173 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $940,284,000 after buying an additional 3,598,487 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 87.4% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,651,024 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $788,682,000 after buying an additional 4,500,194 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,432,842,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $979,062,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Fortinet Stock Down 0.3%
NASDAQ FTNT traded down $0.48 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $171.02. 1,108,069 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,811,558. 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 firm has a market cap of $125.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.03. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $169.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $143.93. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $73.55 and a 12-month high of $197.13.
Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software maker reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.15. Fortinet had a net margin of 28.17% and a return on equity of 191.54%. The business had revenue of $2.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.89 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.64 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 25.6% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, sell-side analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 3.10 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $145.00 target price (up from $102.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. William Blair reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Wolfe Research set a $175.00 price target on Fortinet in a report on Thursday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Fortinet from $100.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Scotiabank restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $163.00 price objective (up from $110.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $161.39.
Get Our Latest Stock Report on Fortinet
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 transaction of $8,911,425.60. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 96,987 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,045,529.28. This trade represents a 35.71% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,482 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.66, for a total value of $26,266,662.12. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 52,972,372 shares in the company, valued at $8,616,486,029.52. This trade represents a 0.30% decrease in their position. 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. Insiders sold 221,303 shares of company stock valued at $36,164,034 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 17.60% of the company’s stock.
About Fortinet
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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