Principal Financial Group Inc. Trims Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 1.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 749,615 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 11,771 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.10% of Fortinet worth $72,158,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of FTNT. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its position in Fortinet by 18,353.2% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 547,323 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $547,000 after purchasing an additional 544,357 shares during the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management raised its position in Fortinet by 38.4% in the first quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 6,794 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $654,000 after purchasing an additional 1,885 shares during the last quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC bought a new position in Fortinet in the first quarter valued at about $216,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its position in Fortinet by 40.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 38,080 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its position in Fortinet by 14.9% in 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 purchasing an additional 16,139 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their price target on Fortinet from $115.00 to $100.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Fortinet in a research note on Monday, May 12th. They issued a "peer perform" rating for the company. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on Fortinet from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Roth Capital set a $103.00 price target on Fortinet and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target on Fortinet from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have issued a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $105.62.

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 stock was sold at an average price of $106.10, for a total value of $16,815,576.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,391,879 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,452,678,361.90. This trade represents a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 3,546 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.11, for a total value of $376,266.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 11,000,068 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,167,217,215.48. This trade represents a 0.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FTNT traded up $0.89 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $107.54. The stock had a trading volume of 5,287,256 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,866,047. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.36. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $103.37 and a 200 day simple moving average of $100.89. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $54.57 and a 12-month high of $114.82. The stock has a market cap of $82.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The software maker reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.54 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.43 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.