Advisors Asset Management Inc. Increases Stake in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Key Points

• Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Fortinet by 65.3%, acquiring an additional 15,932 shares, resulting in a total of 40,312 shares valued at $3.88 million.
• Analysts are revising their price targets for Fortinet, with several cutting their targets and downgrading ratings, indicating a shift in outlook for the stock.
• Fortinet reported a quarterly EPS of $0.64, exceeding expectations of $0.59, with a 13.6% year-over-year revenue growth of $1.63 billion.

Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 65.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 40,312 shares of the software maker's stock after buying an additional 15,932 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc.'s holdings in Fortinet were worth $3,880,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Ritholtz Wealth Management raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 38.4% during the first quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 6,794 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $654,000 after acquiring an additional 1,885 shares in the last quarter. Gould Capital LLC bought a new stake in Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at $908,000. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 1st quarter worth $216,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 40.8% during the 1st quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 131,411 shares of the software maker's stock worth $12,650,000 after buying an additional 38,080 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 14.9% during the fourth quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 124,501 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $11,763,000 after buying an additional 16,139 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions 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 value of $46,935,174.08. Following the sale, the vice president owned 9,730,560 shares in the company, valued at $958,265,548.80. This represents a 4.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the 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 $15,607,701.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,061,072,243.92. This trade represents a 0.31% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 18.00% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Fortinet stock traded down $0.52 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $79.84. 4,475,551 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,613,298. The firm's fifty day moving average is $91.57 and its two-hundred day moving average is $97.57. The company has a market capitalization of $61.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.13. Fortinet, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $70.12 and a fifty-two week high of $114.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 1.24.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last released its 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. Fortinet had a return on equity of 111.46% and a net margin of 30.60%.The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.57 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $125.00 to $95.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. TD Cowen reissued a "hold" rating and set a $105.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $85.00 price objective (down previously from $125.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. KeyCorp cut Fortinet from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price target on Fortinet from $87.00 to $75.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $97.03.

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.