Traders Purchase High Volume of Put Options on Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) saw unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders bought 53,374 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 324% compared to the average volume of 12,598 put options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FTNT has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Evercore set a $80.00 price objective on Fortinet in a report on Friday, February 6th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $90.00 target price on Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Truist Financial set a $88.00 target price on Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortinet currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $87.84.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Fortinet stock opened at $81.15 on Thursday. Fortinet has a 1-year low of $70.12 and a 1-year high of $109.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $60.04 billion, a PE ratio of 33.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.99. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $81.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $81.92.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The software maker reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.86 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 27.26% and a return on equity of 124.21%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.74 EPS. Fortinet has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 0.590-0.630 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 2.940-3.000 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Fortinet will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 175,737 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.42, for a total transaction of $14,308,506.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 51,396,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,184,693,666.70. This represents a 0.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 343,106 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.42, for a total transaction of $27,935,690.52. Following the sale, the vice president owned 10,210,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $831,321,160.44. This trade represents a 3.25% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 17.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,152,917,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Fortinet by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 75,581,275 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $6,354,874,000 after buying an additional 2,894,355 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in Fortinet by 38.9% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 7,730,954 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $613,915,000 after buying an additional 2,166,396 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in Fortinet by 30.9% in the third quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 7,575,662 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $636,962,000 after buying an additional 1,790,033 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in Fortinet by 76.2% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,109,016 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $326,297,000 after acquiring an additional 1,777,115 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.