Knuff & Co LLC Sells 10,435 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Key Points

• Knuff & Co LLC sold 10,435 shares of Fortinet, Inc., reducing its stake by 8.7%, and now holds 109,115 shares valued at approximately $10.5 million.
• CEO Ken Xie sold nearly 158,500 shares of Fortinet's stock for over $15.6 million, bringing his total ownership to approximately 51.4 million shares.
• Recent analyst ratings for Fortinet show a consensus of "Hold" with an average price target of $97.93, reflecting adjustments from significant price reductions by several firms.

Knuff & Co LLC trimmed its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 8.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 109,115 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 10,435 shares during the quarter. Fortinet makes up 3.5% of Knuff & Co LLC's holdings, making the stock its 5th largest holding. Knuff & Co LLC's holdings in Fortinet were worth $10,503,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of FTNT. Ritholtz Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 38.4% during the first quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 6,794 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $654,000 after buying an additional 1,885 shares in the last quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the first quarter valued at $216,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 40.8% during the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 131,411 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $12,650,000 after buying an additional 38,080 shares in the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 14.9% during the fourth quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 124,501 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $11,763,000 after buying an additional 16,139 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 18.9% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 20,025 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $1,928,000 after buying an additional 3,189 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $5,061,072,243.92. The trade was a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, 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 transaction, the vice president owned 9,730,560 shares in the company, valued at $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 17.20% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Trading Up 2.4%

Fortinet stock opened at $79.11 on Friday. 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 business's 50-day simple moving average is $99.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $100.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $60.62 billion, a PE ratio of 31.52, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.07. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.05. Fortinet had a return on equity of 111.46% and a net margin of 30.60%. The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.57 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $85.00 price target (down previously from $125.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on Fortinet from $125.00 to $95.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on Fortinet from $115.00 to $85.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Erste Group Bank cut Fortinet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price objective on Fortinet from $110.00 to $95.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-six have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $97.93.

Fortinet Company 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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