Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. Trims Position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lowered its position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 43.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 111,556 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 87,357 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Fortinet were worth $10,738,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at $724,048,000. Schroder Investment Management Group purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at $389,867,000. FMR LLC lifted its position in Fortinet by 77.2% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,531,705 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $617,115,000 after acquiring an additional 2,846,475 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Fortinet by 39.3% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $720,150,000 after acquiring an additional 2,151,811 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 72.6% during the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 4,906,439 shares of the software maker's stock worth $463,561,000 after purchasing an additional 2,064,016 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Price Performance

NASDAQ FTNT traded down $0.73 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $103.69. The stock had a trading volume of 2,791,053 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,885,322. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $102.10 and a 200 day simple moving average of $100.36. The company has a market cap of $79.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.67, a P/E/G ratio of 3.56 and a beta of 1.06. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52-week low of $54.57 and a 52-week high of $114.82. 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 (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. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 148.79% and a net margin of 30.60%. Fortinet's revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.43 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on FTNT shares. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Fortinet from $105.00 to $95.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. 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. DZ Bank raised shares of Fortinet from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Fortinet from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $104.80.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 3,546 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.11, for a total value of $376,266.06. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 11,000,068 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,167,217,215.48. This represents a 0.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,488 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.10, for a total transaction of $16,815,576.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $5,452,678,361.90. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 18.00% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Company 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.