ING Groep NV Trims Stock Position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Key Points

• ING Groep NV has reduced its stake in Fortinet by 19.6%, selling 64,934 shares and now owning 267,208 shares valued at approximately $25.72 million.
• Fortinet reported a 12-month revenue increase of 13.8% year-over-year, with earnings per share of $0.58 for the last quarter, exceeding analyst expectations.
• Wall Street analysts have mixed ratings on Fortinet, with a consensus target price of $107.00 and a majority rating it as a "Hold."

ING Groep NV trimmed its position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 19.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 267,208 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 64,934 shares during the quarter. ING Groep NV's holdings in Fortinet were worth $25,721,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. Eagle Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 26,176 shares of the software maker's stock worth $2,473,000 after purchasing an additional 404 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 10,327 shares of the software maker's stock worth $976,000 after purchasing an additional 221 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $294,000. Smith Moore & CO. bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $235,000. Finally, Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $18,242,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on FTNT. Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $135.00 to $115.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $95.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $123.00 to $105.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Fortinet from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, July 12th. Finally, Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday, May 12th. They issued a "peer perform" rating on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $107.00.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of Fortinet stock traded down $2.34 on Tuesday, reaching $96.21. 4,032,512 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,968,211. The firm's 50 day moving average is $103.00 and its 200-day moving average is $101.92. Fortinet, Inc. has a one year low of $55.19 and a one year high of $114.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.36. The firm has a market cap of $73.64 billion, a PE ratio of 39.59, a P/E/G ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 1.07.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The software maker reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.05. Fortinet had a net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 148.79%. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.54 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.43 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total value of $15,607,701.28. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director William H. Neukom acquired 335 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 6th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $104.22 per share, with a total value of $34,913.70. Following the purchase, the director owned 301,471 shares in the company, valued at $31,419,307.62. The trade was a 0.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 18.00% of the stock is owned by 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.