Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stake Lessened by Kovack Advisors Inc.

Key Points

• Kovack Advisors Inc. reduced its stake in Fortinet, Inc. by 63.3%, selling 9,034 shares and holding 5,229 shares valued at $503,000 by the end of the first quarter.
• Fortinet's recent earnings report showed a 13.8% increase in quarterly revenue year-over-year, with earnings per share of $0.58, exceeding the consensus estimate.
• Analyst ratings for Fortinet are mixed, with twenty analysts rating the stock as a hold and a consensus target price of $106.48.

Kovack Advisors Inc. cut its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 63.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,229 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 9,034 shares during the period. Kovack Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Fortinet were worth $503,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $724,048,000. Schroder Investment Management Group acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $389,867,000. FMR LLC lifted its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 2,846,475 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in Fortinet by 39.3% during 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 purchasing an additional 2,151,811 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its stake in Fortinet by 72.6% during the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 4,906,439 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $463,561,000 after purchasing an additional 2,064,016 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $104.82 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $80.23 billion, a PE ratio of 43.14, a PEG ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 1.06. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $103.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $101.57. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1 year low of $54.57 and a 1 year high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The software maker reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 148.79%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.43 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on FTNT shares. Roth Capital set a $103.00 target price on shares of Fortinet and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Scotiabank cut their target price 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. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "buy" rating and issued a $125.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, June 17th. Finally, Stephens began coverage on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. They issued an "equal weight" rating and a $108.00 price target for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $106.48.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,488 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.10, for a total value of $16,815,576.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $5,452,678,361.90. This trade represents a 0.31% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 3,546 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.11, for a total transaction of $376,266.06. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 11,000,068 shares in the company, valued at $1,167,217,215.48. This represents a 0.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 17.20% of the company's stock.

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.

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