Motley Fool Asset Management LLC Grows Stock Position in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Motley Fool Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 15.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 50,464 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,566 shares during the quarter. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $5,335,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Saudi Central Bank purchased a new position in Fortinet in the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Clearstead Trust LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet in the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 2,184.6% in the 1st quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 297 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 284 shares during the period. Wayfinding Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, Mechanics Financial Corp purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total transaction of $46,935,174.08. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 9,730,560 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $958,265,548.80. This represents a 4.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total value of $15,607,701.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $5,061,072,243.92. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Stock Performance

FTNT stock opened at $85.29 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The firm has a market cap of $65.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.98, a P/E/G ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.09. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $70.12 and a 12-month high of $114.82. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $82.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $93.83.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 111.46% and a net margin of 30.60%.The business’s revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.57 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FTNT has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Truist Financial reduced their target price on Fortinet from $125.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on Fortinet from $105.00 to $78.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Barclays reduced their target price on Fortinet from $110.00 to $90.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Citigroup cut Fortinet from a “neutral” rating to a “mixed” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Fortinet from $110.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortinet has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.03.

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.