Cerity Partners LLC Sells 82,363 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Cerity Partners LLC lowered its position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 23.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 267,987 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 82,363 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $22,532,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 10,327 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $976,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares in the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $585,000. Ascent Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the first quarter valued at approximately $353,000. SageView Advisory Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,166 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $305,000 after purchasing an additional 108 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Integrity Alliance LLC. purchased a new position in Fortinet in the 1st quarter worth about $346,000. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on FTNT. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $75.00 to $72.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $90.00 target price (up from $85.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday. Daiwa America downgraded Fortinet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 12th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $87.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a report on Monday, November 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $90.30.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 3,546 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.53, for a total value of $306,835.38. Following the sale, the vice president owned 10,492,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $907,874,317.54. This represents a 0.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,485 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $4,445,911,452.29. The trade was a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 17.20% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Price Performance

FTNT stock opened at $79.22 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $81.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $86.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $58.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.07. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52 week low of $70.12 and a 52 week high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The software maker reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $1.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 28.58% and a return on equity of 118.27%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.63 EPS. Fortinet has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.660-2.700 EPS and its Q4 2025 guidance at 0.730-0.750 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.