BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. Cuts Stock Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Key Points

• BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. reduced its stake in Fortinet, Inc. by 25.2%, owning 1,222,415 shares after selling 411,106 shares during the first quarter.
• Several hedge funds, including Vanguard Group Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., have increased their holdings in Fortinet, with the overall institutional ownership at 83.71%.
• Analysts have set new price targets for Fortinet, with estimates dropping from a high of $120 to as low as $85, indicating a generally cautious sentiment on the stock's future performance.

BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. lowered its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 25.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,222,415 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 411,106 shares during the quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. owned about 0.16% of Fortinet worth $117,696,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of FTNT. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in 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 buying an additional 3,546,934 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,570,528 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $824,999,000 after acquiring an additional 181,835 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,519,558 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $627,573,000 after acquiring an additional 49,238 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,990,190 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $565,953,000 after purchasing an additional 202,259 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in Fortinet by 8.3% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,106,259 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $491,528,000 after purchasing an additional 389,718 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on FTNT. Wedbush dropped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Roth Capital set a $103.00 price objective on Fortinet and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Erste Group Bank downgraded Fortinet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Fortinet from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Fortinet from $105.00 to $87.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-six have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $97.93.

Fortinet Stock Up 2.4%

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $79.11 on Monday. Fortinet, Inc. has a twelve month low of $70.12 and a twelve month high of $114.82. The stock has a market cap of $60.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.52, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.07. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $99.22 and a 200 day moving average of $100.91. 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 quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.05. Fortinet had a net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 111.46%. The company had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.57 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of the firm'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 $46,935,174.08. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 9,730,560 shares of the company's stock, valued at $958,265,548.80. This trade represents a 4.67% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director William H. Neukom acquired 335 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 6th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $104.22 per share, for a total transaction of $34,913.70. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 301,471 shares of the company's stock, valued at $31,419,307.62. The trade was a 0.11% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.

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