Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT Shares Bought by NorthRock Partners LLC

Key Points

• NorthRock Partners LLC increased its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. by 25.4% during the second quarter, owning a total of 14,878 shares valued at approximately $1.57 million.
• Fortinet's CEO, Ken Xie, and VP, Michael Xie, both sold substantial shares on August 4th, with Ken selling 158,486 shares and Michael selling 476,596 shares, decreasing their ownership stakes.
• Analysts have adjusted Fortinet's price targets, with Rosenblatt Securities and Citigroup lowering their targets to $85.00 and $85.00 respectively, while maintaining a "neutral" rating on the stock.

NorthRock Partners LLC increased its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 25.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,878 shares of the software maker's stock after purchasing an additional 3,017 shares during the quarter. NorthRock Partners LLC's holdings in Fortinet were worth $1,573,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 5.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 71,662,404 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $6,898,223,000 after acquiring an additional 3,546,934 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2.2% during the first 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. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 17.1% during 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 valued at $675,405,000 after acquiring an additional 1,026,277 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 0.8% during the first 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. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 40.9% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,971,648 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $561,156,000 after acquiring an additional 1,733,670 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 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 transaction of $15,607,701.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $5,061,072,243.92. This trade represents a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction, the vice president owned 9,730,560 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $958,265,548.80. This represents a 4.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on FTNT. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $85.00 target price (down previously from $125.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Mizuho dropped their price target on Fortinet from $87.00 to $75.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen lowered Fortinet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Citigroup restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $85.00 price target (down from $110.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Finally, TD Cowen restated a "hold" rating and issued a $105.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Fortinet currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $97.03.

Fortinet Trading Up 1.4%

Shares of Fortinet stock opened at $84.20 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $64.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.55, a PEG ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.09. Fortinet, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $70.12 and a fifty-two week high of $114.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.33. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $81.43 and a 200 day moving average of $94.43.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 111.46% and a net margin of 30.60%.The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.57 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share 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.

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