MBB Public Markets I LLC Buys Shares of 3,318 Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Key Points

• MBB Public Markets I LLC has acquired 3,318 shares of Fortinet, valued at approximately $319,000, marking a new investment in the cybersecurity company.
• Fortinet's CEO, Ken Xie, and VP, Michael Xie, sold a combined total of over 635,000 shares of the company's stock, representing significant insider transactions.
• Analysts have lowered their price targets for Fortinet, with an average target of $97.03 and a consensus rating of "Hold" based on recent performance evaluations.

MBB Public Markets I LLC acquired a new stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund acquired 3,318 shares of the software maker's stock, valued at approximately $319,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Fortinet by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 71,662,404 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $6,898,223,000 after buying an additional 3,546,934 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Fortinet by 11,349.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,927,607 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $185,551,000 after buying an additional 1,910,771 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 40.9% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,971,648 shares of the software maker's stock worth $561,156,000 after purchasing an additional 1,733,670 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter worth about $153,576,000. Finally, AustralianSuper Pty Ltd increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 127.6% during the 1st quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 1,496,339 shares of the software maker's stock worth $144,038,000 after purchasing an additional 839,028 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on FTNT shares. TD Cowen reiterated a "hold" rating and issued a $105.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Fortinet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $125.00 to $95.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an "underweight" rating and issued a $67.00 price objective (down previously from $78.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $97.03.

Fortinet Stock Up 0.4%

NASDAQ:FTNT traded up $0.33 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $80.01. The company had a trading volume of 2,005,265 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,601,242. The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The firm has a market cap of $61.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.88, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.13. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $89.66 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $96.78. Fortinet, Inc. has a twelve month low of $70.12 and a twelve month high of $114.82.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the firm'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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,391,879 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,061,072,243.92. This trade represents a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of the firm'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 $46,935,174.08. Following the sale, the vice president owned 9,730,560 shares of the company's stock, valued at $958,265,548.80. This trade represents a 4.67% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Fortinet 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.