Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 12,990,000 shares, a drop of 10.5% from the September 15th total of 14,520,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 5,130,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.5 days.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,307 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.89, for a total transaction of $1,908,610.23. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,915,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,005,692,751.70. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,307 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.89, for a total transaction of $1,908,610.23. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,915,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,005,692,751.70. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction of $1,386,590.32. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 10,847,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $608,626,179.98. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 95,250 shares of company stock worth $6,790,149 in the last three months. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in 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 purchasing an additional 779,271 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in 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 purchasing an additional 30,542,551 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB grew its position in 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 purchasing an additional 134,366 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP grew its position in 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 purchasing an additional 4,148,520 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in 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 purchasing an additional 2,802,446 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of Fortinet stock traded down $1.26 on Thursday, reaching $80.86. The stock had a trading volume of 4,032,308 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,542,537. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $76.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $66.47. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45. Fortinet has a 1 year low of $44.12 and a 1 year high of $83.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $61.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 1.00.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.16. Fortinet had a net margin of 23.71% and a negative return on equity of 2,160.10%. The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.31 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 1.74 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on FTNT. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $68.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $61.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $66.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-two have issued a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $72.71.

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.