Bleakley Financial Group LLC Takes Position in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Key Points

• Bleakley Financial Group LLC has acquired a new stake in Fortinet, Inc., purchasing 10,296 shares valued at approximately $1,088,000 in the second quarter.
• Various hedge funds, including Vanguard Group Inc. and AQR Capital Management LLC, have increased their positions in Fortinet, indicating strong institutional interest with 83.71% of the stock owned by hedge funds.
• Fortinet's stock has seen a series of target price adjustments from analysts, with Wells Fargo cutting its target from $110.00 to $85.00, reflecting a more cautious outlook on the stock.

Bleakley Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 10,296 shares of the software maker's stock, valued at approximately $1,088,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 71,662,404 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $6,898,223,000 after purchasing an additional 3,546,934 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 40.9% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,971,648 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $561,156,000 after purchasing an additional 1,733,670 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at $153,576,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its position 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 acquiring an additional 1,026,277 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. purchased a new position in Fortinet in the second quarter worth $108,056,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FTNT has been the subject of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $85.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an "underweight" rating and issued a $67.00 target price (down from $78.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Fortinet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, Wedbush cut their target price on shares of Fortinet from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, twenty-five have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $97.03.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Fortinet stock opened at $85.56 on Friday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $65.56 billion, a PE ratio of 34.09, a P/E/G ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.09. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $81.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $93.97. Fortinet, Inc. has a twelve month low of $70.12 and a twelve month high of $114.82.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The shares were 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 directly owned 51,391,879 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,061,072,243.92. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total transaction of $46,935,174.08. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 9,730,560 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $958,265,548.80. This trade represents a 4.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 17.20% of the company's stock.

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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