California Public Employees Retirement System Buys 69,971 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 3.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,142,153 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 69,971 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned about 0.28% of Fortinet worth $226,468,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. grew its position in Fortinet by 6.8% in the second 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 acquiring an additional 82,937 shares during the last quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 39.7% in the 2nd quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 182,160 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $19,258,000 after purchasing an additional 51,750 shares in the last quarter. Cooper Financial Group bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,653,000. Mainstay Capital Management LLC ADV grew its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 8,643 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Motley Fool Asset Management LLC increased its position 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 worth $5,335,000 after purchasing an additional 6,566 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Stock Up 2.0%

Shares of FTNT opened at $86.92 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $83.50 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $89.99. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12 month low of $70.12 and a 12 month high of $114.82. The company has a market capitalization of $64.64 billion, a PE ratio of 35.77, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The software maker reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 118.27% and a net margin of 28.58%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.63 earnings per share. Fortinet has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.660-2.700 EPS and its Q4 2025 guidance at 0.730-0.750 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,485 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 directly owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $4,445,911,452.29. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction 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 on 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 transaction, the vice president owned 10,492,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $907,874,317.54. The trade was a 0.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Fortinet from $75.00 to $72.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Daiwa America downgraded Fortinet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 12th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Fortinet from $90.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Citigroup downgraded Fortinet from a “neutral” rating to a “mixed” rating in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Finally, Erste Group Bank lowered Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $90.37.

Fortinet Company 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.