Banco Santander S.A. Raises Position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Key Points

• Banco Santander S.A. increased its stake in Fortinet, Inc. by 7.7% in the 1st quarter, now holding 200,886 shares valued at approximately $19.34 million.
• Fortinet's latest earnings report showed earnings per share of $0.58, exceeding analysts' expectations of $0.53, alongside a revenue of $1.54 billion.
• Changes in analyst ratings include a decrease in target prices from firms such as Morgan Stanley and UBS Group, with Fortinet receiving an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $107.00.

Banco Santander S.A. lifted its position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 7.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 200,886 shares of the software maker's stock after acquiring an additional 14,417 shares during the quarter. Banco Santander S.A.'s holdings in Fortinet were worth $19,337,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its position in Fortinet by 2.8% during the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 522,492 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $50,295,000 after purchasing an additional 14,414 shares during the period. TIAA Trust National Association increased its holdings in Fortinet by 401.2% during the first quarter. TIAA Trust National Association now owns 13,121 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $1,263,000 after buying an additional 10,503 shares during the period. Castellan Group raised its stake in Fortinet by 59.1% in the first quarter. Castellan Group now owns 138,768 shares of the software maker's stock worth $13,358,000 after buying an additional 51,560 shares in the last quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp purchased a new stake in Fortinet during the first quarter worth $4,486,000. Finally, HHM Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 3.5% during the first quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,560 shares of the software maker's stock worth $535,000 after buying an additional 190 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 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 $46,935,174.08. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 9,730,560 shares in the company, valued at approximately $958,265,548.80. This 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 this hyperlink. Also, Director William H. Neukom acquired 335 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, June 6th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $104.22 per share, for a total transaction of $34,913.70. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 301,471 shares of the company's stock, valued at $31,419,307.62. This trade represents a 0.11% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 18.00% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on FTNT. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on Fortinet from $135.00 to $115.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. KeyCorp lowered their price target on shares of Fortinet from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $123.00 to $105.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Fortinet from $122.00 to $110.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Barclays set a $110.00 price target on shares of Fortinet and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, July 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $107.00.

Fortinet Stock Performance

FTNT stock traded down $2.34 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $96.21. 4,032,512 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,747,782. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 1.29. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1 year low of $55.19 and a 1 year high of $114.82. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $103.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $101.96. The company has a market cap of $73.64 billion, a PE ratio of 39.59, a P/E/G ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 1.07.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The software maker reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. Fortinet had a net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 148.79%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.43 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.