Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 13,720,000 shares, an increase of 5.7% from the August 15th total of 12,980,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 5,480,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.5 days.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FTNT traded down $0.73 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $75.61. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,677,370 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,714,087. The firm has a market cap of $57.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.32. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $67.59 and a 200-day moving average of $65.03. Fortinet has a 12 month low of $44.12 and a 12 month high of $78.08.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced 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. The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 2,160.10% and a net margin of 23.71%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.31 EPS. Research analysts expect that Fortinet will post 1.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction 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 $608,626,179.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction of $1,386,590.32. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,847,018 shares in the company, valued at $608,626,179.98. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,267 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.01, for a total value of $1,456,262.67. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,777,294 shares in the company, valued at $2,927,125,412.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 72,672 shares of company stock valued at $4,573,864. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,052,487 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $4,648,665,000 after acquiring an additional 779,271 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 664.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 35,137,089 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,400,215,000 after acquiring an additional 30,542,551 shares during the period. Swedbank AB grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 1.7% during the 2nd 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. Marshall Wace LLP grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 198.5% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 6,238,856 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $376,016,000 after acquiring an additional 4,148,520 shares during the period. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 94.9% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,755,599 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $346,890,000 after acquiring an additional 2,802,446 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on FTNT shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Fortinet from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. TD Cowen upgraded Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $75.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 18th. BMO Capital Markets upped 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. Barclays reduced their target price on Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on Fortinet from $71.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Twenty-three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $71.57.

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.