Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Short Interest Update

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest during the month of May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 15,880,000 shares, a decline of 22.6% from the April 30th total of 20,520,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 5,120,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.1 days. Currently, 2.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FTNT has been the subject of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $135.00 price objective (up from $120.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Fortinet in a research note on Monday, May 12th. They set a "peer perform" rating for the company. Susquehanna boosted their target price on Fortinet from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Fortinet from $115.00 to $95.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $104.80.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 206,000 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.93, for a total transaction of $19,967,580.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,981,414,831.47. This trade represents a 0.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director William H. Neukom bought 328 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $106.33 per share, for a total transaction of $34,876.24. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 300,006 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $31,899,637.98. This trade represents a 0.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold 697,818 shares of company stock valued at $69,539,128 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 18.00% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Eagle Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Fortinet by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 26,176 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $2,473,000 after acquiring an additional 404 shares during the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 10,327 shares of the software maker's stock worth $976,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares during the period. PFG Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $208,000. Strategic Blueprint LLC acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at $214,000. Finally, Caprock Group LLC acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at $2,302,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of Fortinet stock traded down $1.26 on Wednesday, hitting $101.62. The stock had a trading volume of 3,392,828 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,974,851. Fortinet has a 52-week low of $54.57 and a 52-week high of $114.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The stock has a market cap of $77.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.96, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.06. The company's 50 day moving average price is $99.87 and its 200 day moving average price is $99.61.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last posted its 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 business 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 business earned $0.43 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 2.09 EPS 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.