DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Sells 414,510 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lessened its position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 62.0% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 253,910 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 414,510 shares during the quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $16,950,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cetera Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 91.6% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 33,223 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,269,000 after buying an additional 15,880 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its position in Fortinet by 543.5% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 157,319 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $10,765,000 after buying an additional 132,871 shares in the last quarter. PGGM Investments boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 0.8% in the first quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 175,791 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $12,008,000 after acquiring an additional 1,360 shares during the period. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the first quarter worth about $548,013,000. Finally, Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. boosted its stake in Fortinet by 0.9% during the first quarter. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. now owns 179,110 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $12,235,000 after buying an additional 1,526 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,267 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.01, for a total transaction of $1,456,262.67. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,777,294 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,927,125,412.94. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, 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, with a total value of $34,896.30. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 295,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,613,579.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,267 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.01, for a total transaction of $1,456,262.67. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,777,294 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,927,125,412.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 91,915 shares of company stock worth $5,401,638. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Fortinet from $73.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. TD Cowen upgraded Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $75.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price objective on Fortinet from $65.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Scotiabank lowered their target price on Fortinet from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on Fortinet from $72.00 to $67.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $70.00.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ FTNT traded down $0.69 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $56.51. 5,940,825 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,801,712. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.12 and a 1-year high of $76.00. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $63.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.17 billion, a PE ratio of 36.93, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.98.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 22.23% and a negative return on equity of 2,235.48%. Fortinet’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.29 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate 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.