Virtus Advisers LLC Purchases New Stake in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Virtus Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 1,160 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $123,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dover Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Fortinet by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Dover Advisors LLC now owns 9,451 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $999,000 after buying an additional 94 shares in the last quarter. Balboa Wealth Partners raised its stake in Fortinet by 4.3% during the second quarter. Balboa Wealth Partners now owns 2,330 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $246,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. Hemington Wealth Management boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 13.2% in the 2nd quarter. Hemington Wealth Management now owns 851 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $89,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. Peloton Wealth Strategists grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Peloton Wealth Strategists now owns 4,330 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $417,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Trust Co. of Vermont increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 2,852 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $302,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

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

Fortinet Stock Performance

FTNT stock opened at $81.13 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $60.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.32, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.08. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $83.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $90.69. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $70.12 and a 12-month high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The software maker reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $1.72 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 111.46%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $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. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Cowen lowered Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 6th. UBS Group cut their price objective on Fortinet from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $67.00 price target (down from $78.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price target on Fortinet from $75.00 to $72.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 6th. One research 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 assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $90.37.

About Fortinet

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.