Choate Investment Advisors Raises Position in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Choate Investment Advisors boosted its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 303.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 29,102 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 21,890 shares during the period. Choate Investment Advisors’ holdings in Fortinet were worth $2,311,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 4.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 75,581,275 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $6,354,874,000 after buying an additional 2,894,355 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 477,397 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 17.0% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,816,519 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $909,453,000 after buying an additional 1,568,337 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 30.9% in the third quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 7,575,662 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $636,962,000 after buying an additional 1,790,033 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 12.9% in the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,905,567 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $548,371,000 after buying an additional 790,117 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of FTNT opened at $133.93 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $98.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $93.06 and a 200 day moving average of $85.25. Fortinet, Inc. has a twelve month low of $70.12 and a twelve month high of $134.19.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The software maker reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $1.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.73 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 27.49% and a return on equity of 160.08%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 20.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.58 earnings per share. Fortinet has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.720-0.760 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.160 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on FTNT. BTIG Research upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $125.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 14th. Stephens set a $115.00 target price on shares of Fortinet and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $70.00 target price (up from $64.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, twenty-four have assigned a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $101.83.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 5,355 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.90, for a total transaction of $476,059.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 52,978,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,709,744,555.60. This trade represents a 0.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 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. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 2,478 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.89, for a total transaction of $220,269.42. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 9,927,517 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $882,456,986.13. This trade represents a 0.02% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 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 153,848 shares of company stock valued at $19,446,115 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 17.60% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet 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.