First Merchants Corp Cuts Position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

First Merchants Corp trimmed its holdings in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 2.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 94,661 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 2,008 shares during the period. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $5,705,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vima LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Winthrop Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet during the first quarter worth about $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 135.6% during the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 377 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 217 shares in the last quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Oakworth Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the second quarter valued at about $33,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In related news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 18,701 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.68, for a total value of $1,116,075.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 4,663 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $278,287.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 18,701 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.68, for a total transaction of $1,116,075.68. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 4,663 shares in the company, valued at $278,287.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,235 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.53, for a total value of $1,442,709.55. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,742,483 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,901,640,012.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 115,608 shares of company stock valued at $7,132,649 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on FTNT shares. DZ Bank raised Fortinet from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. 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 report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Twenty-three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $71.31.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of Fortinet stock traded up $0.24 during trading on Friday, hitting $74.73. 3,182,470 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,865,768. The stock has a market cap of $57.09 billion, a PE ratio of 48.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.98. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $62.38 and its 200 day moving average is $64.29. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.12 and a 12 month high of $76.31.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 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 22.23% and a negative return on equity of 2,235.48%. Fortinet’s quarterly revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.31 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortinet Company 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.