Fortinet Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Investors purchased 53,374 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 324% compared to the average volume of 12,598 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 175,737 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.42, for a total transaction of $14,308,506.54. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 51,396,385 shares in the company, valued at $4,184,693,666.70. This represents a 0.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 343,106 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.42, for a total transaction of $27,935,690.52. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 10,210,282 shares in the company, valued at $831,321,160.44. This represents a 3.25% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders own 17.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Fortinet by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 75,581,275 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $6,354,874,000 after acquiring an additional 2,894,355 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 1.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 29,660,558 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,493,860,000 after purchasing an additional 477,397 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth $1,152,917,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 14,504,597 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,151,810,000 after purchasing an additional 893,190 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 17.0% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,816,519 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $909,453,000 after purchasing an additional 1,568,337 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on FTNT shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Fortinet from $72.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Robert W. Baird set a $90.00 price objective on Fortinet in a report on Friday, February 6th. Scotiabank downgraded Fortinet from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $85.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Oppenheimer reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $87.84.

Fortinet Trading Up 1.7%

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $82.53 on Friday. Fortinet has a 1 year low of $70.12 and a 1 year high of $109.33. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $81.81 and a 200-day moving average price of $81.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 1.09. The company has a market cap of $61.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.96, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 1.00.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The software maker reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.86 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 124.21% and a net margin of 27.26%.Fortinet’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.74 EPS. Fortinet has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 0.590-0.630 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 2.940-3.000 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Fortinet will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortinet Company Profile

Fortinet, Inc (NASDAQ: FTNT) is a multinational cybersecurity company that develops and delivers integrated security solutions for enterprise, service provider and government customers worldwide. Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, the company was co‑founded by Ken Xie and Michael Xie. Ken Xie serves as chairman and chief executive officer, and the company operates through a global sales, channel and services organization to support customers across the Americas, EMEA and Asia‑Pacific.

Fortinet’s product portfolio centers on network security appliances and software, with its FortiGate next‑generation firewalls and the FortiOS operating system forming a core platform.