Vanguard Group Inc. Purchases 1,024,516 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 72,686,920 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 1,024,516 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 0.09% of Fortinet worth $7,684,461,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. increased its position in Fortinet by 2,025.0% in the second quarter. Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. now owns 2,125 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $225,000 after purchasing an additional 2,025 shares during the period. Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services Inc. raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 31.8% in the 2nd quarter. Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services Inc. now owns 3,673 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $388,000 after acquiring an additional 886 shares during the period. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 10.6% during the second quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 14,811 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,566,000 after purchasing an additional 1,423 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management bought a new position in Fortinet during the second quarter worth about $25,000. Finally, Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 7,411 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $783,000 after purchasing an additional 493 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 3,546 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.53, for a total transaction 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,485 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.51, for a total value of $13,710,537.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,445,911,452.29. This trade represents a 0.31% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 18.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Fortinet from $90.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 6th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Fortinet from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Mizuho decreased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $75.00 to $72.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Daiwa America lowered shares of Fortinet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 12th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $91.22.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $80.15 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $59.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $83.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $92.02. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1 year low of $70.12 and a 1 year high of $114.82.

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

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.