Burney Co. Cuts Stake in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Key Points

• Burney Co. trimmed its Fortinet stake by 8.4% in Q4, selling 18,187 shares and ending the period with 197,809 shares valued at about $15.71 million.
• Q4 results beat expectations—$0.81 EPS vs. $0.74 consensus and $1.91 billion revenue (up 14.8% y/y)—and Fortinet set Q1 2026 guidance of $0.590–0.630 and FY2026 guidance of $2.940–3.000 EPS.
• Insider sales and risks: VP Michael Xie and CEO Ken Xie sold sizable blocks (343,106 and 175,737 shares), and an actively exploited FortiClient vulnerability plus sector weakness contributed to recent share pressure amid a mixed analyst consensus (average target ≈ $87.84).

Burney Co. lessened its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 8.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 197,809 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 18,187 shares during the period. Burney Co.'s holdings in Fortinet were worth $15,708,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pinnacle Holdings LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Financial Consulate Inc. purchased a new position in Fortinet in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. purchased a new position in Fortinet in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Ameriflex Group Inc. purchased a new position in Fortinet in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Finally, Wexford Capital LP purchased a new position in Fortinet in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $76.61 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.17. Fortinet, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $70.12 and a fifty-two week high of $109.33. The company has a market cap of $56.68 billion, a PE ratio of 31.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $81.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $81.89.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last released 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. Fortinet had a return on equity of 124.21% and a net margin of 27.26%.The firm had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.86 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.74 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 14.8% compared to the same quarter last year. 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 expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 343,106 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company's stock, valued at $831,321,160.44. The trade was a 3.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 175,737 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.42, for a total value of $14,308,506.54. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,396,385 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,184,693,666.70. This trade represents a 0.34% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 17.20% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on FTNT. Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. They issued an "underweight" rating and a $64.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley reissued an "underweight" rating and issued a $70.00 price target (up from $66.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, December 18th. Mizuho raised their price target on Fortinet from $72.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock an "underperform" rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Freedom Capital downgraded Fortinet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Citigroup reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $90.00 price target (up from $85.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Monday, February 9th. Five 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 MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $87.84.

Fortinet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Fortinet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analyst/sector pieces continue to list FTNT among cybersecurity names to buy for 2026, citing secular demand for cloud and enterprise security which supports long-term growth potential. Buy These 3 Cybersecurity Stocks to Protect Your Portfolio in 2026
• Positive Sentiment: Additional media pieces highlight FTNT alongside peers as a beneficiary of AI-driven and cloud security spending, reinforcing upside case for investors focused on durable demand. Buy These 3 Cybersecurity Stocks to Protect Your Portfolio in 2026 (Yahoo)
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest data reported for April appears erroneous/zeroed (shows NaN/0 shares and 0.0 days), so there’s no clear short-squeeze signal from the published figure — treat this data with caution. (Entry: short interest update)
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst consensus remains mixed-to-cautious: FTNT carries an average “Hold” and a range of price targets (median ≈ $87), reflecting divergent views on near-term multiple expansion vs. execution/competitive risks. Fortinet Given Average Rating of "Hold" by Analysts
• Negative Sentiment: Security vulnerability: Fortinet disclosed CVE-2026-35616 in FortiClient EMS (7.4.5–7.4.6) which has been exploited in the wild; the issue was added to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) list and government agencies urged immediate hotfixing/upgrading. That elevated remediation urgency likely drove the intraday selloff as customers and investors assess operational risk and patch timelines. Fortinet shares fall 4.6% as markets weigh actively exploited FortiClient EMS vulnerability and patch urgency
• Negative Sentiment: Sector pressure: wider cybersecurity pullback (big names like CrowdStrike, Palo Alto, Zscaler down sharply) amplified selling in FTNT as investors rotated away from the group amid AI/security uncertainty. CrowdStrike, Other Cybersecurity Stocks Get Crushed
• Negative Sentiment: Insider and institutional flows: recent public filings show heavy insider sales by senior executives and large institutional redemptions by some funds — a negative signal for sentiment and potential selling pressure. (Details in Quiver Quant article above.)

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.

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