Choate Investment Advisors Sells 315 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Choate Investment Advisors trimmed its position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 7.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,827 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 315 shares during the period. Choate Investment Advisors’ holdings in Fortinet were worth $261,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at $203,501,000. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in Fortinet by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,953,153 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $201,730,000 after acquiring an additional 26,229 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Fortinet by 11.3% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,628,691 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $153,875,000 after acquiring an additional 267,759 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group grew its holdings in Fortinet by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 2,618,816 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $153,279,000 after acquiring an additional 74,528 shares during the period. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in Fortinet by 6.3% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,889,149 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $110,572,000 after acquiring an additional 112,752 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total transaction of $1,593,300.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 10,867,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $700,705,320.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, Director William H. Neukom acquired 586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 6th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $59.55 per share, with a total value of $34,896.30. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 295,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,613,579.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total transaction of $1,593,300.80. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,867,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $700,705,320.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 91,638 shares of company stock worth $5,705,568. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Fortinet stock traded up $0.35 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $59.90. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,879,430 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,777,901. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.12 and a 12-month high of $81.24. The company has a market capitalization of $45.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.15, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.98. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $59.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $63.92.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. Fortinet had a net margin of 22.23% and a negative return on equity of 2,235.48%. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.29 EPS. Fortinet’s revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FTNT has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Fortinet from $67.00 to $63.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $71.00 to $68.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $69.86.

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.