Sandler Capital Management Takes Position in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Key Points

• Sandler Capital Management acquired a new position in Fortinet, purchasing 22,073 shares valued at approximately $2.1 million in the first quarter of 2023.
• Several institutional investors, including Vanguard Group and GAMMA Investing LLC, significantly increased their stakes in Fortinet during the same period, highlighting strong institutional interest in the company.
• Fortinet's recent quarterly earnings report showed an EPS of $0.64, beating analysts' expectations, with revenue rising by 13.6% compared to the prior year.

Sandler Capital Management purchased a new position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 22,073 shares of the software maker's stock, valued at approximately $2,125,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of FTNT. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Fortinet by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 71,662,404 shares of the software maker's stock worth $6,898,223,000 after buying an additional 3,546,934 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings 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 worth $185,551,000 after buying an additional 1,910,771 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Fortinet by 40.9% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,971,648 shares of the software maker's stock worth $561,156,000 after buying an additional 1,733,670 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet in the 1st quarter worth approximately $153,576,000. Finally, AustralianSuper Pty Ltd increased its holdings in Fortinet by 127.6% in the 1st quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 1,496,339 shares of the software maker's stock worth $144,038,000 after buying an additional 839,028 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $5,061,072,243.92. This trade represents a 0.31% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 trade represents a 4.67% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 17.20% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. TD Cowen reiterated a "hold" rating and issued a $105.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of Fortinet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, August 14th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Fortinet from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Fortinet from $110.00 to $85.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $97.03.

Fortinet Trading Up 3.1%

Fortinet stock opened at $78.83 on Friday. 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 12 month low of $70.12 and a 12 month high of $114.82. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $92.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $98.01. The firm has a market cap of $60.41 billion, a PE ratio of 31.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.12.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.57 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

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.

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