Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 130.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 9,171 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 5,196 shares during the period. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $970,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. Saudi Central Bank purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Clearstead Trust LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 2,184.6% during the 1st quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 297 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 284 shares in the last quarter. Wayfinding Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, Mechanics Financial Corp purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total transaction of $46,935,174.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 9,730,560 shares in the company, valued at approximately $958,265,548.80. This represents a 4.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total value of $15,607,701.28. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 51,391,879 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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. Corporate insiders own 17.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FTNT has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays reduced their price objective on Fortinet from $110.00 to $90.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Fortinet from $105.00 to $87.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Fortinet from $110.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on Fortinet from $125.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI cut their target price on Fortinet from $105.00 to $78.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Two 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $97.03.

Fortinet Stock Up 0.7%

Shares of FTNT opened at $85.56 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $65.56 billion, a PE ratio of 34.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52-week low of $70.12 and a 52-week high of $114.82. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $81.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $93.93.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.63 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 111.46% and a net margin of 30.60%.The company’s revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.57 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

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.