Norges Bank Takes $1.15 Billion Position in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 14,518,531 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $1,152,917,000. Norges Bank owned about 1.95% of Fortinet as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Eurizon SLJ Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at $1,744,000. Eurizon Capital SGR S.p.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at $14,638,000. Fideuram Asset Management Ireland dac purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at $4,879,000. Basepoint Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Rothschild Investment LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 88.6% in the fourth quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC now owns 5,559 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $441,000 after purchasing an additional 2,612 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Trading Up 6.4%

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $137.97 on Friday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $70.12 and a 1-year high of $138.11. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The company has a market capitalization of $101.08 billion, a PE ratio of 53.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.80 and a beta of 0.92. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $96.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $86.62.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The software maker reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.20. Fortinet had a net margin of 27.49% and a return on equity of 160.08%. The business had revenue of $1.85 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.73 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.58 earnings per share. Fortinet’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Fortinet has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.720-0.760 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.160 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on FTNT shares. Barclays set a $115.00 target price on Fortinet and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Zacks Research upgraded Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 14th. Citigroup increased their target price on Fortinet from $90.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Scotiabank increased their target price on Fortinet from $85.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Fortinet from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 19th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, twenty-four have assigned a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $102.69.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other news, COO John Whittle sold 146,015 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.41, for a total value of $18,749,786.15. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 94,724 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,163,508.84. This represents a 60.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 5,355 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.90, for a total transaction of $476,059.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 52,978,004 shares in the company, valued at $4,709,744,555.60. This trade represents a 0.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 153,848 shares of company stock valued at $19,446,115. 17.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Fortinet Profile

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.