Venture Visionary Partners LLC Lowers Stock Position in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Key Points

• Venture Visionary Partners LLC reduced its stake in Fortinet, Inc. by 37.8%, holding 12,687 shares valued at approximately $1.22 million after selling 7,707 shares.
• Several hedge funds increased their positions in Fortinet in the 4th quarter, with MML Investors Services LLC making the largest increase of 70.2%.
• Fortinet recently announced quarterly earnings of $0.64 per share, surpassing analyst estimates of $0.59, with a 13.6% year-over-year revenue growth to $1.63 billion.

Venture Visionary Partners LLC lessened its stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 37.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 12,687 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 7,707 shares during the period. Venture Visionary Partners LLC's holdings in Fortinet were worth $1,221,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. increased its holdings in Fortinet by 703.1% during the first quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 257 shares of the software maker's stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 225 shares during the last quarter. Clearstead Trust LLC purchased a new stake in Fortinet during the first quarter worth about $28,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd increased its holdings in Fortinet by 2,184.6% during the first quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 297 shares of the software maker's stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 284 shares during the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC increased 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 last quarter. Finally, EQ Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Fortinet during the first quarter worth about $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FTNT has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 7th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Fortinet from $105.00 to $90.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. KeyCorp lowered shares of Fortinet from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, Wedbush cut their target price on shares of Fortinet from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, twenty-five have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortinet currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $97.40.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of FTNT stock traded up $2.27 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $80.02. The stock had a trading volume of 6,171,431 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,984,843. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $96.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $100.15. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $61.32 billion, a PE ratio of 31.88, a PEG ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.07.

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, 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 company had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.57 earnings per share. Fortinet's revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director William H. Neukom acquired 335 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 6th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $104.22 per share, for a total transaction of $34,913.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 301,471 shares of the company's stock, valued at $31,419,307.62. The trade was a 0.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $5,061,072,243.92. This represents a 0.31% 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.