Blair William & Co. IL Sells 11,683 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Key Points

• Blair William & Co. IL reduced its stake in Fortinet, Inc. by 5.5%, holding 201,587 shares worth approximately $19.4 million after selling 11,683 shares in Q1.
• Several hedge funds significantly increased their positions in Fortinet in Q4, with FMR LLC boosting its stake by 77.2%, now owning 6.5 million shares valued at about $617 million.
• Fortinet's stock has performed with a 52-week range of $55.19 to $114.82, and while it recently traded at $96.21, analysts have an average target price of $107 with a general rating of "Hold."

Blair William & Co. IL trimmed its position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 5.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 201,587 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 11,683 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL's holdings in Fortinet were worth $19,405,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Fortinet by 31.3% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,388,693 shares of the software maker's stock worth $792,564,000 after buying an additional 2,000,888 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 77.2% during 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 in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Fortinet by 17.2% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,470,320 shares of the software maker's stock worth $611,316,000 after acquiring an additional 951,233 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in Fortinet by 3.5% in the 4th 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 worth $565,953,000 after acquiring an additional 202,259 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its position in Fortinet by 72.6% in the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 4,906,439 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $463,561,000 after acquiring an additional 2,064,016 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FTNT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. DZ Bank upgraded Fortinet from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of Fortinet from $135.00 to $115.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $113.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $107.00.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of FTNT stock traded up $0.37 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $96.58. The stock had a trading volume of 8,431,240 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,905,492. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $73.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.74, a PEG ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 1.07. Fortinet, Inc. has a one year low of $65.00 and a one year high of $114.82. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $103.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $101.92.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total value of $46,935,174.08. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 9,730,560 shares in the company, valued at $958,265,548.80. The trade was a 4.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total transaction of $15,607,701.28. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, 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. 17.20% of the stock is 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.