Insider Selling: Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) VP Sells 476,596 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• Fortinet's VP, Michael Xie, sold 476,596 shares of the company stock for approximately $46.9 million, reducing his ownership by 4.67%.
• Following the share sale, Fortinet's stock traded down $2.34, closing at $96.21, with a market cap of $73.64 billion.
• Analysts have mixed ratings for Fortinet, with one sell rating, twenty hold ratings, and fourteen buy ratings, along with an average price target of $107.00.

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total value of $46,935,174.08. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 9,730,560 shares of the company's stock, valued at $958,265,548.80. This trade represents a 4.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FTNT traded down $0.91 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $74.39. 17,001,530 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,194,551. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $101.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $101.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $56.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1 year low of $67.97 and a 1 year high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.05. Fortinet had a return on equity of 111.46% and a net margin of 30.60%. The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.57 EPS. The firm'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 fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on FTNT. Wedbush cut their price objective on Fortinet from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price objective on Fortinet from $110.00 to $95.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Truist Financial cut their price objective on Fortinet from $125.00 to $95.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Mizuho cut their price objective on Fortinet from $87.00 to $75.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Fortinet from $105.00 to $87.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-five have assigned a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $97.93.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FTNT. Dover Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Fortinet by 1.0% during the second quarter. Dover Advisors LLC now owns 9,451 shares of the software maker's stock worth $999,000 after purchasing an additional 94 shares during the last quarter. Balboa Wealth Partners raised its holdings in Fortinet by 4.3% during the second quarter. Balboa Wealth Partners now owns 2,330 shares of the software maker's stock worth $246,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Hemington Wealth Management raised its holdings in Fortinet by 13.2% during the second quarter. Hemington Wealth Management now owns 851 shares of the software maker's stock worth $89,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. Peloton Wealth Strategists raised its holdings in Fortinet by 2.4% during the first quarter. Peloton Wealth Strategists now owns 4,330 shares of the software maker's stock worth $417,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Trust Co. of Vermont raised its holdings in Fortinet by 3.6% during the second quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 2,852 shares of the software maker's stock worth $302,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.