Great Lakes Advisors LLC Invests $3.61 Million in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Great Lakes Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 23,499 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $3,610,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of FTNT. Expressive Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $646,000. Leonteq Securities AG acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at about $10,422,000. Eurizon Capital SGR S.p.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at about $14,638,000. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 156.6% during the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 390,492 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $31,009,000 after purchasing an additional 238,299 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Westerkirk Capital Inc. increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 41.9% during the fourth quarter. Westerkirk Capital Inc. now owns 52,500 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $4,169,000 after purchasing an additional 15,500 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 3,907 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.44, for a total value of $572,141.08. Following the sale, the vice president owned 9,923,610 shares in the company, valued at $1,453,213,448.40. The trade was a 0.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,482 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.66, for a total value of $26,266,662.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 52,972,372 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,616,486,029.52. This trade represents a 0.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 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. Insiders sold 329,142 shares of company stock valued at $50,731,178 over the last quarter. 17.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $150.79 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $156.10 and its two-hundred day moving average is $117.36. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12 month low of $73.55 and a 12 month high of $172.09. The company has a market capitalization of $110.64 billion, a PE ratio of 53.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.07.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The software maker reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $2.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.89 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 28.17% and a return on equity of 191.54%. Fortinet’s revenue was up 25.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.64 EPS. Fortinet has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.410-3.470 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.830-0.870 EPS. Analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 3.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on FTNT. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $185.00 price objective (up from $165.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Zacks Research raised Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. DZ Bank downgraded shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Evercore set a $165.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating, eighteen have given a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $150.91.

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.