Bank of Nova Scotia Sells 13,820 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Key Points

• Bank of Nova Scotia has reduced its stake in Fortinet, Inc. by 1.8%, selling 13,820 shares and now holding a total of 773,570 shares worth $74,462,000.
• Several hedge funds, including Eagle Capital Management and Brighton Jones, have recently increased their holdings in Fortinet, highlighting growing institutional interest.
• Fortinet has received upgrades from analysts, with Wall Street Zen raising its rating from "hold" to "buy," and the average target price set at $107.00.

Bank of Nova Scotia reduced its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 1.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 773,570 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 13,820 shares during the quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia owned 0.10% of Fortinet worth $74,462,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Eagle Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 47.5% in the first quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 348 shares of the software maker's stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares in the last quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 37.3% in the first quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 412 shares of the software maker's stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares in the last quarter. Cornerstone Enterprises LLC increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 2.3% in the first quarter. Cornerstone Enterprises LLC now owns 5,018 shares of the software maker's stock worth $483,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 9,390 shares of the software maker's stock worth $902,000 after acquiring an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In related news, Director William H. Neukom purchased 335 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 6th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $104.22 per share, with a total value of $34,913.70. Following the acquisition, the director owned 301,471 shares of the company's stock, valued at $31,419,307.62. This represents a 0.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 18.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on FTNT. Barclays set a $110.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $122.00 to $110.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $125.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, DZ Bank raised shares of Fortinet from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $107.00.

Fortinet Trading Up 1.2%

Fortinet stock traded up $1.19 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $98.55. 5,369,347 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,937,192. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12 month low of $54.57 and a 12 month high of $114.82. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $103.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $101.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $75.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.56, a PEG ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 1.07.

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