T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Key Points

• T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. drastically reduced its holdings in Fortinet, Inc., cutting its stake by 93.1% and owning approximately 0.06% of the company after selling over 6.2 million shares.
• Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Fortinet by 5.2%, now owning over 71 million shares valued at approximately $6.9 billion, while GAMMA Investing LLC made a substantial increase in holdings by 11,349.3%.
• Wall Street analysts have lowered price targets for Fortinet, with a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $97.40, reflecting a cautious outlook despite a recent earnings report showing positive growth.

T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 93.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 463,877 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 6,292,564 shares during the quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. owned 0.06% of Fortinet worth $44,653,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 703.1% during the first quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 257 shares of the software maker's stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. Clearstead Trust LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the first quarter worth about $28,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2,184.6% during the first quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 297 shares of the software maker's stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 284 shares in the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC boosted its stake in 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 buying an additional 112 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EQ Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the first quarter worth approximately $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director William H. Neukom bought 335 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 6th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $104.22 per share, for a total transaction 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the company'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 $15,607,701.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 51,391,879 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,061,072,243.92. This represents a 0.31% 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.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Fortinet in a report on Monday, May 12th. They issued a "peer perform" rating on the stock. DZ Bank upgraded Fortinet from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $85.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, August 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on Fortinet from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Truist Financial reduced their price target on Fortinet from $125.00 to $95.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price objective on Fortinet from $87.00 to $75.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, twenty-five have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $97.40.

Fortinet Price Performance

NASDAQ:FTNT traded down $2.38 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $77.64. The stock had a trading volume of 7,261,582 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,189,230. The stock has a market capitalization of $59.49 billion, a PE ratio of 30.93, a PEG ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 1.07. 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 company has a 50 day moving average price of $96.50 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $99.88. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52 week low of $70.12 and a 52 week high of $114.82.

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

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.