Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Has $1.49 Million Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Key Points

• Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC has reduced its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. by 44.8%, now owning 15,432 shares valued at approximately $1.49 million.
• Fortinet reported quarterly earnings of $0.64 EPS, beating analysts' expectations by $0.05, with a revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter.
• Analyst ratings for Fortinet are mixed, with a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $97.40 following several recent price target reductions.

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC reduced its position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 44.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,432 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 12,543 shares during the quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC's holdings in Fortinet were worth $1,485,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in FTNT. Eagle Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 26,176 shares of the software maker's stock worth $2,473,000 after buying an additional 404 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in Fortinet by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 10,327 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $976,000 after purchasing an additional 221 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its position in Fortinet by 50.5% in the fourth quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 31,481 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $2,974,000 after purchasing an additional 10,562 shares during the period. Freedom Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Fortinet by 22.1% in the fourth quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,751 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $449,000 after purchasing an additional 861 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Fortinet by 19.5% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,611,461 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $246,743,000 after purchasing an additional 426,616 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortinet Price Performance

NASDAQ:FTNT traded down $2.67 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $78.09. 15,005,711 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,522,214. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The company has a market capitalization of $59.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.11, a P/E/G ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 1.07. Fortinet, Inc. has a one year low of $70.12 and a one year high of $114.82. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $98.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $100.62.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on 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 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 position. The transaction 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 on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total transaction of $46,935,174.08. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 9,730,560 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 18.00% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FTNT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Fortinet in a research note on Monday, May 12th. They set a "peer perform" rating for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Fortinet from $105.00 to $87.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. UBS Group decreased their price target on Fortinet from $105.00 to $90.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Scotiabank decreased their price target on Fortinet from $115.00 to $85.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Wedbush decreased their price target on Fortinet from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $97.40.

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.