NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC Reduces Position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC lowered its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 17.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 64,032 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 13,131 shares during the period. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $4,966,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Sarasin & Partners LLP raised its stake in Fortinet by 22.4% in the 2nd quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP now owns 2,163,093 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $130,370,000 after acquiring an additional 395,477 shares during the last quarter. PDS Planning Inc purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the first quarter worth about $200,000. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 543.5% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 157,319 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $10,765,000 after purchasing an additional 132,871 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. boosted its position in Fortinet by 10.5% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 138,893 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $9,488,000 after buying an additional 13,178 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Magnetar Financial LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet in the 1st quarter worth approximately $3,189,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on FTNT. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Fortinet from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Fortinet from $73.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price target on Fortinet from $61.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-two have given a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $73.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 10,847,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the vice president now owns 10,847,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,538 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.94, for a total value of $1,763,937.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,878,806 shares in the company, valued at $3,662,977,721.64. 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 valued at $6,790,149 in the last three months. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $80.34 on Friday. Fortinet, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.12 and a twelve month high of $83.77. The company has a market cap of $61.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $77.64 and its 200-day moving average price is $67.05.

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

Fortinet Profile

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.