Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Short Interest Update

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) was the target of a large decline in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 12,990,000 shares, a decline of 10.5% from the September 15th total of 14,520,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 5,130,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.5 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,307 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.89, for a total value of $1,908,610.23. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,915,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,005,692,751.70. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction of $1,386,590.32. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 10,847,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $608,626,179.98. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,307 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.89, for a total transaction of $1,908,610.23. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,915,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,005,692,751.70. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 95,250 shares of company stock worth $6,790,149 in the last quarter. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 26.9% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 10,001 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $683,000 after acquiring an additional 2,118 shares during the last quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP raised its position in Fortinet by 22.4% in the second quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP now owns 2,163,093 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $130,370,000 after purchasing an additional 395,477 shares during the period. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise raised its position in Fortinet by 71.1% in the first quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 72,384 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,945,000 after purchasing an additional 30,084 shares during the period. PDS Planning Inc purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the first quarter valued at approximately $200,000. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers raised its position in Fortinet by 543.5% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 157,319 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $10,765,000 after purchasing an additional 132,871 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of FTNT traded down $1.29 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $80.83. The company had a trading volume of 2,941,432 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,537,110. Fortinet has a 1-year low of $44.12 and a 1-year high of $83.77. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $76.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $66.47. The stock has a market cap of $61.75 billion, a PE ratio of 53.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 1.00.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.40 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 23.71% and a negative return on equity of 2,160.10%. Fortinet’s revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.31 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 1.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Mizuho lowered Fortinet from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $68.00 target price for the company. in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Fortinet from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. DZ Bank raised Fortinet from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Fortinet from $63.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reduced their target price on Fortinet from $85.00 to $68.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-two have issued a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $72.71.

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.