Choate Investment Advisors Purchases 21,890 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Key Points

• Choate Investment Advisors boosted its Fortinet stake by 303.5% in the fourth quarter, buying 21,890 additional shares and bringing its total position to 29,102 shares worth about $2.31 million.
• Fortinet reported strong quarterly results, with EPS of $0.82 and revenue of $1.85 billion, both beating analyst expectations. Revenue rose 20.1% year over year, and the company issued upbeat guidance for Q2 2026 and FY 2026.
• Despite the solid results, insider selling continued, including shares sold by CEO Ken Xie and VP Michael Xie, while analysts remain cautious overall with a Hold consensus and an average target price of $101.83.

Choate Investment Advisors lifted its position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 303.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 29,102 shares of the software maker's stock after purchasing an additional 21,890 shares during the quarter. Choate Investment Advisors' holdings in Fortinet were worth $2,311,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. PDS Planning Inc increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 4,110 shares of the software maker's stock worth $326,000 after purchasing an additional 123 shares during the period. Delta Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Delta Investment Management LLC now owns 5,250 shares of the software maker's stock worth $417,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the period. Fiduciary Trust Co increased its stake in Fortinet by 1.2% in the third quarter. Fiduciary Trust Co now owns 10,823 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $910,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Optimist Retirement Group LLC increased its stake in Fortinet by 2.9% in the third quarter. Optimist Retirement Group LLC now owns 4,888 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $411,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. Finally, L2 Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Fortinet by 5.1% in the third quarter. L2 Asset Management LLC now owns 2,992 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $252,000 after acquiring an additional 145 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Fortinet stock opened at $133.93 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 1.07 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. The firm has a market cap of $98.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.71, a P/E/G ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 0.92. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $70.12 and a 1-year high of $134.19.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The software maker reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $1.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.73 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 27.49% and a return on equity of 160.08%. Fortinet's revenue for the quarter was up 20.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $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. Sell-side analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.77 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 5,355 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owned 52,978,004 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,709,744,555.60. This represents a 0.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 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 stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.89, for a total transaction of $220,269.42. Following the sale, the vice president owned 9,927,517 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $882,456,986.13. This represents a 0.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 153,848 shares of company stock worth $19,446,115. Company insiders own 17.60% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on FTNT. Susquehanna increased their target price on Fortinet from $90.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Robert W. Baird set a $115.00 target price on Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $87.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued a "market perform" rating and issued a $83.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an "underweight" rating and issued a $80.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, twenty-four have assigned a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $101.83.

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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