Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Shares Sold by Sarasin & Partners LLP

Sarasin & Partners LLP reduced its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 1.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,930,897 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 20,337 shares during the period. Fortinet makes up about 1.8% of Sarasin & Partners LLP's holdings, making the stock its 24th largest holding. Sarasin & Partners LLP owned about 0.25% of Fortinet worth $185,868,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at $724,048,000. Schroder Investment Management Group acquired a new stake in Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at $389,867,000. FMR LLC raised its stake in Fortinet by 77.2% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,531,705 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $617,115,000 after buying an additional 2,846,475 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in Fortinet by 39.3% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker's stock worth $720,150,000 after purchasing an additional 2,151,811 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 72.6% in the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 4,906,439 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $463,561,000 after purchasing an additional 2,064,016 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on FTNT. Needham & Company LLC restated a "hold" rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Fortinet in a report on Monday, May 12th. They issued a "peer perform" rating for the company. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $123.00 to $105.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $100.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $135.00 target price (up from $120.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $104.80.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,488 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 now owns 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director William H. Neukom purchased 328 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $106.33 per share, for a total transaction of $34,876.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 300,006 shares in the company, valued at $31,899,637.98. This represents a 0.11% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 697,818 shares of company stock valued at $69,539,128. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Trading Down 1.2%

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT traded down $1.26 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $101.62. The stock had a trading volume of 3,374,166 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,969,722. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $99.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $99.59. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The stock has a market cap of $77.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.96, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.06. Fortinet, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $54.57 and a fifty-two week high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The software maker reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.43 EPS. Fortinet's revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortinet Company 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.