Novem Group Sells 808 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Novem Group lowered its stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 25.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,343 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 808 shares during the period. Novem Group’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $248,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 5.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 71,662,404 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $6,898,223,000 after buying an additional 3,546,934 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 2.2% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,570,528 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $824,999,000 after buying an additional 181,835 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 17.1% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 7,016,467 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $675,405,000 after buying an additional 1,026,277 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 0.8% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,519,558 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $627,573,000 after buying an additional 49,238 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 40.9% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,971,648 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $561,156,000 after buying an additional 1,733,670 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on FTNT. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $105.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, August 7th. KeyCorp cut Fortinet from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $67.00 price objective (down previously from $78.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on Fortinet from $105.00 to $78.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 8th. Finally, Wedbush cut their price objective on Fortinet from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.03.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total transaction of $15,607,701.28. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 51,391,879 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,061,072,243.92. The trade was a 0.31% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the vice president directly owned 9,730,560 shares in the company, valued at $958,265,548.80. This trade represents a 4.67% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 17.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Fortinet Trading Up 1.3%

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $84.32 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $64.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.59, a PEG ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 1.12. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $85.36 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $95.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.33. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52 week low of $70.12 and a 52 week high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 111.46% and a net margin of 30.60%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.57 EPS. 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.