iA Global Asset Management Inc. Sells 8,903 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

iA Global Asset Management Inc. decreased its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 6.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 137,313 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 8,903 shares during the quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $8,276,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 1.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,052,487 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,648,665,000 after purchasing an additional 779,271 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Fortinet by 664.8% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 35,137,089 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,400,215,000 after buying an additional 30,542,551 shares during the period. Swedbank AB raised its position in Fortinet by 1.7% in the second quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,156,797 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $491,610,000 after acquiring an additional 134,366 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its stake in Fortinet by 7.6% in the first quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 3,996,822 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $273,023,000 after purchasing an additional 283,339 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at $203,501,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, Director William H. Neukom bought 586 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 6th. The stock was bought at an average price of $59.55 per share, for a total transaction of $34,896.30. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 295,778 shares in the company, valued at $17,613,579.90. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total value of $1,386,590.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 10,847,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director William H. Neukom purchased 586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 6th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $59.55 per share, for a total transaction of $34,896.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 295,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,613,579.90. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 115,608 shares of company stock worth $7,132,649. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Fortinet from $68.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Fortinet from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Truist Financial decreased their price target on Fortinet from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Piper Sandler raised shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Twenty-four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $71.31.

Fortinet Stock Performance

FTNT stock opened at $76.71 on Friday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.12 and a 52 week high of $77.18. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $64.06 and its 200 day moving average is $64.53. The firm has a market cap of $58.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.98.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.16. Fortinet had a net margin of 22.23% and a negative return on equity of 2,235.48%. The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.40 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.31 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.47 EPS for the current year.

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.