Czech National Bank Boosts Stock Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Czech National Bank lifted its position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 165,423 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,135 shares during the quarter. Czech National Bank’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $13,909,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet in the second quarter worth about $1,640,900,000. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Fortinet by 40.9% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,971,648 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $561,156,000 after purchasing an additional 1,733,670 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its position in Fortinet by 17.1% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 7,016,467 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $675,405,000 after purchasing an additional 1,026,277 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Fortinet by 1.4% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 72,686,920 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $7,684,461,000 after purchasing an additional 1,024,516 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. acquired a new stake in Fortinet in the second quarter valued at approximately $108,056,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FTNT has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Barclays reduced their target price on Fortinet from $90.00 to $88.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and set a $85.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $75.00 target price (down from $85.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Wednesday. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $90.11.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Fortinet news, 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 transaction of $13,710,537.35. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $4,445,911,452.29. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, 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 completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 10,492,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $907,874,317.54. The trade was a 0.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 17.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Fortinet Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $79.75 on Friday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $70.12 and a 1-year high of $114.82. The firm has a market cap of $59.31 billion, a PE ratio of 32.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a 50-day moving average of $82.83 and a two-hundred day moving average of $88.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 0.94.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The software maker reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.11. Fortinet had a net margin of 28.58% and a return on equity of 118.27%. The business had revenue of $1.72 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.63 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. Fortinet has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.660-2.700 EPS and its Q4 2025 guidance at 0.730-0.750 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Fortinet Company Profile

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.