Nykredit A S Acquires New Position in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Key Points

• Nykredit A/S acquired 265,740 Fortinet shares during the second quarter, valued at approximately $40.8 million. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 83.71% of Fortinet.
• Fortinet reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $0.90 versus the $0.75 consensus estimate and revenue of $2.05 billion, up 25.6% year over year.
• FTNT recently traded at $169.84, while analysts maintain an average “Hold” rating and a $152.79 average price target. Insiders sold $36.2 million of stock during the latest quarter, primarily through pre-arranged trading plans.

Nykredit A S acquired a new stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 265,740 shares of the software maker's stock, valued at approximately $40,823,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Fortinet during the second quarter worth $9,561,650,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth $1,152,917,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 14,504,597 shares of the software maker's stock worth $1,151,810,000 after buying an additional 893,190 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 45.5% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 11,506,173 shares of the software maker's stock worth $940,284,000 after buying an additional 3,598,487 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 87.4% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,651,024 shares of the software maker's stock worth $788,682,000 after buying an additional 4,500,194 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Stock Down 1.6%

FTNT opened at $169.84 on Friday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12 month low of $73.55 and a 12 month high of $176.10. The business has a 50-day moving average of $160.14 and a two-hundred day moving average of $128.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $124.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 1.06.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software maker reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.15. Fortinet had a net margin of 28.17% and a return on equity of 191.54%. The firm had revenue of $2.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.89 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.64 earnings per share. Fortinet's revenue for the quarter was up 25.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Fortinet has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.410-3.470 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.830-0.870 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 3.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other news, COO John Whittle sold 2,835 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.74, for a total value of $478,377.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 96,987 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,365,586.38. This represents a 2.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 3,121 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.63, for a total value of $507,568.23. Following the sale, the vice president owned 9,918,360 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,613,022,886.80. This represents a 0.03% 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. Insiders sold 221,303 shares of company stock valued at $36,164,034 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 17.60% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on FTNT. Bank of America reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $175.00 target price on Fortinet and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. William Blair reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday, August 24th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $183.00 price target on Fortinet and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortinet has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $152.79.

Fortinet Profile

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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