AG2R LA Mondiale Gestion D Actifs Invests $2.51 Million in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Key Points

• AG2R LA Mondiale Gestion D Actifs invested approximately $2.51 million in Fortinet, acquiring 24,686 shares this quarter, showcasing growing interest from institutional investors.
• Fortinet's stock received several price target reductions from analysts, with Stifel Nicolaus and UBS Group lowering targets to $85.00 and $90.00 respectively, signaling potential caution in the market.
• Fortinet reported strong earnings, with an EPS of $0.64 above analyst expectations, contributing to a revenue increase of 13.6% year-over-year.

AG2R LA Mondiale Gestion D Actifs acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 24,686 shares of the software maker's stock, valued at approximately $2,513,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Peloton Wealth Strategists boosted its position in Fortinet by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Peloton Wealth Strategists now owns 4,330 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $417,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Hemington Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 16.6% in the 1st quarter. Hemington Wealth Management now owns 752 shares of the software maker's stock worth $72,000 after buying an additional 107 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 12,334 shares of the software maker's stock worth $1,187,000 after buying an additional 107 shares during the period. SageView Advisory Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,166 shares of the software maker's stock worth $305,000 after buying an additional 108 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Fortinet by 0.4% in the first quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 26,285 shares of the software maker's stock worth $2,530,000 after acquiring an additional 109 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 9,730,560 shares of the company's stock, valued at $958,265,548.80. The trade was a 4.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the business's 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,391,879 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,061,072,243.92. The trade was a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 17.20% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on FTNT. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $95.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $85.00 price target (down previously from $125.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Fortinet from $105.00 to $90.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 7th. DZ Bank upgraded Fortinet from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $85.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, August 8th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their price objective on Fortinet from $87.00 to $75.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, twenty-five have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $97.03.

Fortinet Price Performance

FTNT traded down $1.22 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $79.78. 5,583,656 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,626,061. The company has a market capitalization of $61.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.78, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.12. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52-week low of $70.12 and a 52-week high of $114.82. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $89.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $96.59. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.05. Fortinet had a net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 111.46%. The business had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.57 EPS. The business's revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.