Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Grows Position in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Key Points

• Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC increased its Fortinet stake by 134.5% in the fourth quarter, buying 28,085 additional shares and bringing its total to 48,964 shares worth about $3.89 million.
• Other institutional investors also made smaller additions, and institutions overall own 83.71% of Fortinet’s shares, indicating heavy professional ownership of the stock.
• Analyst sentiment remains mixed: the stock’s consensus rating is Hold with an average price target of $107.77, while recent insider filings showed CEO Ken Xie and VP Michael Xie both sold shares under pre-arranged trading plans.

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 134.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 48,964 shares of the software maker's stock after purchasing an additional 28,085 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC's holdings in Fortinet were worth $3,888,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Optimist Retirement Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Optimist Retirement Group LLC now owns 5,010 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $398,000 after acquiring an additional 122 shares during the period. PDS Planning Inc raised its stake in Fortinet by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 4,110 shares of the software maker's stock worth $326,000 after acquiring an additional 123 shares during the period. GW&K Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Fortinet by 31.4% during the 4th quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC now owns 515 shares of the software maker's stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 123 shares during the period. Delta Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Delta Investment Management LLC now owns 5,250 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $417,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 6,459 shares of the software maker's stock worth $513,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FTNT has been the topic of several research reports. Zacks Research cut shares of Fortinet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an "underweight" rating and issued a $70.00 price objective (up from $64.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an "underperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $160.00 price target (up from $125.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday, June 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortinet has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $107.77.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 160,632 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.58, for a total value of $23,384,806.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 52,972,372 shares in the company, valued at $7,711,717,915.76. This trade represents a 0.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 3,907 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.44, for a total value of $572,141.08. Following the sale, the vice president owned 9,923,610 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,453,213,448.40. This trade represents a 0.04% 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. Insiders sold a total of 318,387 shares of company stock worth $43,403,063 in the last quarter. 17.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of FTNT opened at $144.73 on Friday. Fortinet, Inc. has a twelve month low of $70.12 and a twelve month high of $150.07. The company has a market cap of $106.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.88, a P/E/G ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 1.11. 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 company's fifty day simple moving average is $116.11 and its 200-day simple moving average is $93.37.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The software maker reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $1.85 billion for 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 revenue was up 20.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.58 EPS. 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, analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.78 EPS for the current year.

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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