Insider Selling: Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) CEO Sells 161,483 Shares of Stock

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) CEO Ken Xie sold 161,483 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.31, for a total transaction of $20,881,366.73. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 52,972,372 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,849,857,423.32. This represents a 0.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of Fortinet stock traded up $1.90 on Tuesday, reaching $128.11. 5,964,432 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,889,527. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $170.80 and its 200-day moving average is $128.52. The firm has a market cap of $94.00 billion, a PE ratio of 41.59, a P/E/G ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 1.03. Fortinet, Inc. has a one year low of $73.55 and a one year high of $197.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.28.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The software maker reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.05. Fortinet had a return on equity of 182.65% and a net margin of 28.96%. The company had revenue of $2.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.06 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.74 EPS. Fortinet’s revenue was up 20.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 3.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Piper Sandler set a $140.00 target price on shares of Fortinet and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 29th. Stephens upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Mizuho set a $118.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, October 29th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $145.00 price target (up from $102.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating, twenty-four have given a Hold rating and six have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $147.94.

Key Stories Impacting Fortinet

Here are the key news stories impacting Fortinet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Demand for cybersecurity solutions remains a potential tailwind as businesses adopt AI, move to the cloud, and accelerate digital transformation. One article also says the spread of agentic AI is benefiting the cybersecurity industry. Article: 3 Security Stocks to Buy Now Amid the Flourishing Industry Trend Article: Why Is Fortinet Stock Falling, and is it a Buying Opportunity?
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks highlighted Fortinet as a growth stock, while a separate list of large-cap technology stocks selected by billionaire investors ranked FTNT eighth. These are supportive signals, though neither is a new company announcement. Article: Here’s Why Fortinet Is a Strong Growth Stock Article: Fortinet Crashed 26% in a Day: Did Wall Street Get It Wrong?
• Neutral Sentiment: Excite Cyber achieved Fortinet Advanced Partner status, a modest ecosystem development with no stated financial impact for Fortinet. Article: Excite Cyber Gains Fortinet Advanced Partner Status
• Negative Sentiment: Recent coverage describes a sharp selloff in Fortinet and other cybersecurity stocks amid broader technology weakness and questions about how much investors will pay for growth as AI infrastructure costs rise. Article: Fortinet Crashed 26% in a Day: Did Wall Street Get It Wrong? Article: Cybersecurity Stocks Slide
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst actions add pressure: Susquehanna reduced its price target, Wedbush maintained a Hold rating, and a report cited a 10.56% decline in Fortinet’s consensus target. Article: Fortinet Stock Gets Price Target Reduction from Susquehanna Article: Wedbush Reaffirms Its Hold Rating

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Burk Holdings LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. Dunhill Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 102.5% during the 2nd quarter. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC now owns 164 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. NFSG Corp acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the third quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, Timbuktu Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the second quarter worth approximately $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

About Fortinet

Fortinet, Inc develops cybersecurity products and services designed to protect networks, endpoints, applications, cloud environments and operational technology systems. The company’s portfolio includes next-generation firewalls, secure networking products, endpoint security, web application security, email security, identity and access solutions, and security information and event management tools.

Its product offerings include FortiGate network security appliances and cloud-based firewalls, along with FortiSwitch, FortiAP and FortiExtender solutions for secure connectivity.