NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC Sells 9,701 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC cut its stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 15.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 54,887 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 9,701 shares during the quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $5,283,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $724,048,000. Schroder Investment Management Group bought a new stake in Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at $389,867,000. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 77.2% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,531,705 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $617,115,000 after acquiring an additional 2,846,475 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in Fortinet by 39.3% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $720,150,000 after buying an additional 2,151,811 shares during the period. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 72.6% during the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 4,906,439 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $463,561,000 after purchasing an additional 2,064,016 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,488 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.10, for a total value of $16,815,576.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $5,452,678,361.90. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 3,546 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.11, for a total value of $376,266.06. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 11,000,068 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,167,217,215.48. The trade was a 0.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 17.20% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $100.83 on Friday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $54.57 and a 1-year high of $114.82. The company has a market cap of $77.18 billion, a PE ratio of 44.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $101.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $100.06.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The software maker reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.54 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. The company’s revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.43 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. UBS Group lowered their price target on Fortinet from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Wolfe Research started coverage on Fortinet in a research note on Monday, May 12th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. KeyCorp cut their price target on Fortinet from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Fortinet from $115.00 to $95.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortinet currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $104.80.

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.