Manhattan West Asset Management LLC Acquires New Position in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Key Points

• Manhattan West Asset Management acquired 49,901 Fortinet shares worth approximately $7.7 million, making FTNT its 18th-largest holding. Several other funds also initiated positions, while institutional investors collectively own 83.71% of the company.
• Analyst sentiment remains mixed, with a consensus “Hold” rating and an average price target of $150.91, below Fortinet’s reported opening price of $153.51.
• Fortinet exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $0.90 in EPS versus estimates of $0.75 and $2.05 billion in revenue, up 25.6% year over year. Executives Ken Xie and Michael Xie sold shares under pre-arranged plans to cover tax obligations.

Manhattan West Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 49,901 shares of the software maker's stock, valued at approximately $7,666,000. Fortinet makes up about 1.3% of Manhattan West Asset Management LLC's holdings, making the stock its 18th biggest holding.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. C M Bidwell & Associates Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Keating Financial Advisory Services Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 2nd quarter valued at about $104,000. OneAscent Investment Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 2nd quarter valued at about $475,000. Patron Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the second quarter worth about $1,065,000. Finally, OneAscent Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the second quarter worth about $452,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on FTNT shares. Mizuho set a $125.00 target price on Fortinet and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. UBS Group reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $180.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Scotiabank reissued a "sector perform" rating and issued a $163.00 price target 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 company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $190.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $150.91.

Fortinet Price Performance

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $153.51 on Friday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52 week low of $73.55 and a 52 week high of $172.09. 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 market cap of $112.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $156.24 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $117.61.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software maker reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $2.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.89 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 28.17% and a return on equity of 191.54%. Fortinet's revenue was up 25.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.64 earnings per share. 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 3.05 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 3,121 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.63, for a total value of $507,568.23. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 9,918,360 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,613,022,886.80. This represents a 0.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 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 firm's stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 52,972,372 shares in the company, valued at $8,616,486,029.52. This trade represents a 0.30% 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 90 days, insiders sold 329,142 shares of company stock worth $50,731,178. 17.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Fortinet

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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