Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Shares Down 1.3% – What’s Next?

Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) dropped 1.3% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $103.72 and last traded at $105.09. Approximately 1,321,950 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 73% from the average daily volume of 4,823,281 shares. The stock had previously closed at $106.48.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FTNT has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Scotiabank lifted their target price on Fortinet from $115.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Fortinet from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $103.72.

Fortinet Trading Up 0.6 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.47. The company has a market capitalization of $82.39 billion, a PE ratio of 47.42, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $101.69 and a 200 day moving average of $90.45.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a net margin of 29.30% and a return on equity of 256.53%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total value of $2,150,466.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 49,039,698 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,576,384,617.36. This trade represents a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 17,660 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.18, for a total transaction of $1,928,118.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 4,736 shares in the company, valued at $517,076.48. The trade was a 78.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 87,120 shares of company stock worth $8,991,409 in the last three months. Insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at $724,048,000. Schroder Investment Management Group purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at $389,867,000. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 77.2% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,531,705 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $617,115,000 after purchasing an additional 2,846,475 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in Fortinet by 39.3% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $720,150,000 after buying an additional 2,151,811 shares during the period. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 72.6% during the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 4,906,439 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $463,561,000 after buying an additional 2,064,016 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

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.