Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC Cuts Position in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC trimmed its position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 8.0% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 5,999 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 521 shares during the quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $634,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. Dover Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 period. Balboa Wealth Partners lifted its holdings in shares of 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 period. Hemington Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of 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 period. Peloton Wealth Strategists lifted its holdings in shares of 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 period. Finally, Trust Co. of Vermont lifted its holdings in shares of 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 period. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have issued reports on FTNT. Citigroup cut Fortinet from a “neutral” rating to a “mixed” rating in a research report on Monday. DZ Bank upgraded Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, August 8th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Fortinet from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. UBS Group cut their price objective on Fortinet from $105.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.03.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In related news, 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 transaction of $46,935,174.08. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 9,730,560 shares in the company, valued at approximately $958,265,548.80. This trade 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 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 $15,607,701.28. Following the sale, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 17.20% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $85.56 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $65.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.09, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.09. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52 week low of $70.12 and a 52 week high of $114.82. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $81.97 and its 200 day moving average price is $93.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.63 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 111.46%. The firm’s revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.57 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast 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.