Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT Shares Sold by Royal Bank of Canada

Key Points

• Royal Bank of Canada reduced its stake in Fortinet, selling 22,293 shares and retaining approximately 1.32 million shares valued at $127.6 million.
• The majority of Fortinet's stock, 83.71%, is currently owned by institutional investors, highlighting strong investor interest.
• Recent analyst ratings for Fortinet show a consensus rating of "Hold" with an average target price of $97.03, indicating mixed sentiment among market experts.

Royal Bank of Canada lessened its position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 1.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,325,368 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 22,293 shares during the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada owned approximately 0.17% of Fortinet worth $127,581,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hemington Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 16.6% during the first quarter. Hemington Wealth Management now owns 752 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $72,000 after buying an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 0.9% in the first quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 12,334 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $1,187,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares during the period. Eagle Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 0.4% during the first quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 26,285 shares of the software maker's stock worth $2,530,000 after buying an additional 109 shares during the period. ORG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 47.5% during the first quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 348 shares of the software maker's stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 112 shares during the period. Finally, Bogart Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 37.3% during the first quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 412 shares of the software maker's stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 112 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Stock Performance

FTNT traded up $2.39 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $78.83. 10,495,077 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,263,326. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $92.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $97.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $60.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $70.12 and a 1-year 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 for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.05. Fortinet had a net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 111.46%. The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.57 EPS. Fortinet's quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on FTNT. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on Fortinet from $105.00 to $78.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Fortinet in a research report on Monday, May 12th. They set a "peer perform" rating on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Fortinet from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. DZ Bank raised Fortinet from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $85.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Finally, KeyCorp downgraded Fortinet from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $97.03.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Fortinet 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 value of $15,607,701.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on 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 directly owned 9,730,560 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $958,265,548.80. This trade represents a 4.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 17.20% of the stock is 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.