Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT Stock Sold by Argent Capital Management LLC

Key Points

• Argent Capital Management reduced its Fortinet stake by 8.5% in the third quarter, selling 40,041 shares and retaining 432,368 shares valued at approximately $77.3 million. Institutional investors collectively own 83.71% of Fortinet.
• Fortinet shares rose 1.1% to $182.94, near their 52-week high of $183.43. The company recently surpassed earnings and revenue expectations, reporting $0.90 in EPS and $2.05 billion in quarterly revenue, up 25.6% year over year.
• Analysts maintain a consensus “Hold” rating with an average price target of $152.79, below the current share price. Insiders sold 221,303 shares worth about $36.2 million during the quarter, primarily under pre-arranged plans to cover tax obligations.

Argent Capital Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 8.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 432,368 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 40,041 shares during the period. Fortinet accounts for about 0.6% of Argent Capital Management LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. Argent Capital Management LLC owned 0.06% of Fortinet worth $77,290,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of FTNT. Collective Family Office LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 3rd quarter valued at $230,000. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in Fortinet by 8.8% during the 3rd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 4,571 shares of the software maker's stock worth $817,000 after purchasing an additional 370 shares in the last quarter. Parrish Capital LLC lifted its position in Fortinet by 1.3% during the third quarter. Parrish Capital LLC now owns 6,374 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $1,139,000 after buying an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Fortinet by 12.7% during the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 85,054 shares of the software maker's stock worth $13,066,000 after buying an additional 9,563 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 681.7% in the second quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 40,608 shares of the software maker's stock worth $6,238,000 after acquiring an additional 35,413 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortinet Stock Up 1.1%

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT traded up $1.99 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $182.94. 1,024,168 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,925,567. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.28. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52-week low of $73.55 and a 52-week high of $183.43. The business's fifty day moving average price is $163.73 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $135.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $134.22 billion, a PE ratio of 64.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 1.03.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The software maker reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $2.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.89 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.64 EPS. Fortinet'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. Analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 3.07 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 3,121 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.63, for a total transaction of $507,568.23. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 9,918,360 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,613,022,886.80. This trade represents a 0.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale 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, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,482 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owned 52,972,372 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,616,486,029.52. This represents a 0.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 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 quarter, insiders sold 221,303 shares of company stock worth $36,164,034. Insiders own 17.60% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group restated a "neutral" rating and set a $180.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Fortinet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Robert W. Baird set a $165.00 target price on Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. William Blair reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, Truist Financial set a $183.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $152.79.

About Fortinet

Fortinet, Inc develops and provides cybersecurity products and services for businesses, governments, and service providers. The company's portfolio is designed to protect networks, endpoints, applications, cloud environments, and operational technology from cyber threats.

Its offerings include FortiGate next-generation firewalls, FortiSwitch secure networking switches, FortiAP wireless access points, FortiClient endpoint security, and FortiSASE secure access service edge solutions. Fortinet also provides centralized management and analytics through products such as FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer, along with security operations, threat intelligence, and other subscription-based services through its FortiGuard portfolio.

Founded in 2000, Fortinet serves customers globally through direct sales, channel partners, and managed security service providers.

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