Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT Shares Sold by Groupe la Francaise

Key Points

• Groupe la Francaise cut its Fortinet stake by 96.5% in the second quarter, selling 44,118 shares and retaining 1,588 shares valued at approximately $244,000.
• Fortinet reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $0.90 versus the $0.75 consensus and revenue of $2.05 billion, up 25.6% year over year. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company.
• Analyst sentiment remains mixed: Fortinet has an average “Hold” rating and a $150.91 price target, while shares recently opened at $157.47. CEO Ken Xie and VP Michael Xie also sold shares under pre-arranged plans to cover tax obligations.

Groupe la Francaise trimmed its position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 96.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,588 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 44,118 shares during the period. Groupe la Francaise's holdings in Fortinet were worth $244,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of FTNT. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its position in Fortinet by 15,545.1% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 145,097,777 shares of the software maker's stock worth $22,289,921,000 after acquiring an additional 144,170,346 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Fortinet in the 2nd quarter valued at $9,561,650,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at $1,152,917,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 2nd quarter worth $1,432,842,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 2nd quarter worth $979,062,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FTNT has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Piper Sandler reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $175.00 target price (up from $110.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Robert W. Baird set a $165.00 price target on Fortinet in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Scotiabank reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating and set a $163.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Fortinet from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $150.91.

Fortinet Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $157.47 on Wednesday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $73.55 and a 12-month high of $173.89. The company has a market cap of $115.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $158.97 and a 200 day moving average price of $124.32.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software maker reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.15. Fortinet had a return on equity of 191.54% and a net margin of 28.17%.The company had revenue of $2.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.89 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.64 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 25.6% on a year-over-year basis. Fortinet has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.410-3.470 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.830-0.870 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 3.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,482 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.66, for a total value of $26,266,662.12. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 52,972,372 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,616,486,029.52. This trade represents a 0.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through 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 3,121 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.63, for a total transaction of $507,568.23. Following the sale, the vice president owned 9,918,360 shares in the company, valued at $1,613,022,886.80. This represents a 0.03% decrease in their position. 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. Company insiders own 17.60% of the company's stock.

About Fortinet

Fortinet, Inc develops cybersecurity products and services designed to protect enterprise, small and midsize business, service provider, and government networks. Its portfolio covers network security, endpoint protection, cloud security, secure access service edge (SASE), security operations, and zero-trust access.

The company's offerings include FortiGate next-generation firewalls, FortiSwitch secure networking switches, FortiAP wireless access points, FortiClient endpoint security, and FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer management and analytics tools.

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