Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. Buys 21,037 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 14.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 166,953 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 21,037 shares during the quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $17,650,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 6.8% during the 2nd quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 1,305,352 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $137,800,000 after purchasing an additional 82,937 shares during the last quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 39.7% in the second quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 182,160 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $19,258,000 after buying an additional 51,750 shares in the last quarter. Cooper Financial Group bought a new position in Fortinet during the second quarter valued at approximately $2,653,000. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Fortinet by 15.0% during the 2nd quarter. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC now owns 50,464 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $5,335,000 after buying an additional 6,566 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mainstay Capital Management LLC ADV grew its holdings in Fortinet by 105.8% during the 2nd quarter. Mainstay Capital Management LLC ADV now owns 16,816 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,778,000 after buying an additional 8,643 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on FTNT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Fortinet from $87.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Citigroup cut shares of Fortinet from a “neutral” rating to a “mixed” rating in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $85.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $80.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $90.37.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,485 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.51, for a total transaction of $13,710,537.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $4,445,911,452.29. This trade represents a 0.31% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 3,546 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.53, for a total transaction of $306,835.38. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 10,492,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $907,874,317.54. This trade represents a 0.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 17.20% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Trading Down 0.4%

FTNT opened at $80.55 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.33. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $83.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $91.09. Fortinet, Inc. has a one year low of $70.12 and a one year high of $114.82. The stock has a market cap of $59.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.09, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.08.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The software maker reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $1.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 111.46% and a net margin of 30.60%.Fortinet’s revenue was up 14.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.63 EPS. Fortinet has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.660-2.700 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 0.730-0.750 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Fortinet Profile

Fortinet, Inc provides cybersecurity and convergence of networking and security solutions worldwide. It offers secure networking solutions focus on the convergence of networking and security; network firewall solutions that consist of FortiGate data centers, hyperscale, and distributed firewalls, as well as encrypted applications; wireless LAN solutions; and secure connectivity solutions, including FortiSwitch secure ethernet switches, FortiAP wireless local area network access points, FortiExtender 5G connectivity gateways, and other products.