Maverick Capital Ltd. lessened its stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT – Free Report) by 35.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 61,382 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 33,878 shares during the period. Maverick Capital Ltd.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $4,079,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 51,202,733 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,402,934,000 after buying an additional 617,369 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 15.0% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 26,607,677 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,300,849,000 after buying an additional 3,467,035 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 125,937.5% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 14,597,668 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $713,680,000 after acquiring an additional 14,586,086 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in Fortinet by 12.1% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 7,119,589 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $348,077,000 after acquiring an additional 767,603 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at about $312,964,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.00% of the company’s stock.
Analyst Ratings Changes
FTNT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, August 17th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday, August 28th. Citigroup reduced their price target on Fortinet from $73.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 29th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on Fortinet from $93.00 to $84.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 4th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $75.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, July 18th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $73.23.
Fortinet Stock Performance
Fortinet stock traded up $0.62 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $64.69. 1,262,195 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,461,862. Fortinet, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $42.61 and a fifty-two week high of $81.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $50.80 billion, a PE ratio of 48.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.16. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $68.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $66.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.09, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.39.
Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The software maker reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.04. Fortinet had a net margin of 21.24% and a negative return on equity of 698.28%. The firm had revenue of $1.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.18 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 25.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.24 earnings per share for the current year.
Insider Activity
In other Fortinet news, EVP Patrice Perche sold 7,530 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.15, for a total transaction of $535,759.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 25,730 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,830,689.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Patrice Perche sold 7,530 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.15, for a total value of $535,759.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 25,730 shares in the company, valued at $1,830,689.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 5,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.20, for a total value of $291,720.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 4,578 shares in the company, valued at $261,861.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 67,218 shares of company stock worth $4,429,412 over the last 90 days. 17.54% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.
Fortinet Profile
Fortinet, Inc provides cybersecurity and networking solutions worldwide. It offers FortiGate hardware and software licenses that provide various security and networking functions, including firewall, intrusion prevention, anti-malware, virtual private network, application control, web filtering, anti-spam, and wide area network acceleration.