Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC Reduces Stock Position in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Key Points

• Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC has significantly reduced its stake in Fortinet, Inc., selling over 204,000 shares and now owning 132,912 shares, valued at approximately $13.6 million.
• Institutional investors currently hold 83.71% of Fortinet’s stock, with Vanguard Group Inc. increasing its stake by 5.2% in the first quarter.
• Fortinet's latest earnings report indicated a net margin of 30.60% and revenue of $1.63 billion, consistent with analyst expectations, while analysts have adjusted price targets downward, reflecting a conservative outlook on the stock.

Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC reduced its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 60.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 132,912 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 204,049 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC's holdings in Fortinet were worth $13,614,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of FTNT. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Fortinet by 5.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 71,662,404 shares of the software maker's stock worth $6,898,223,000 after buying an additional 3,546,934 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Fortinet by 40.9% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,971,648 shares of the software maker's stock worth $561,156,000 after buying an additional 1,733,670 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Fortinet in the first quarter worth about $153,576,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its stake in Fortinet by 17.1% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 7,016,467 shares of the software maker's stock worth $675,405,000 after buying an additional 1,026,277 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AustralianSuper Pty Ltd raised its stake in Fortinet by 127.6% in the first quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 1,496,339 shares of the software maker's stock worth $144,038,000 after buying an additional 839,028 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The shares were 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 approximately $958,265,548.80. This trade represents a 4.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the firm'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 transaction of $15,607,701.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $5,061,072,243.92. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 17.20% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Trading Up 0.4%

NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $83.44 on Friday. The company's 50 day moving average price is $81.25 and its 200-day moving average price is $94.10. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52 week low of $70.12 and a 52 week high of $114.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The stock has a market cap of $63.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.24, a PEG ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.09.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.63 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.57 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on FTNT shares. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $85.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Fortinet from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $105.00 to $87.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $97.03.

Fortinet 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.

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