Gulf International Bank UK Ltd Lowers Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Gulf International Bank UK Ltd cut its position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 21.6% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 38,314 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 10,534 shares during the quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $3,688,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 3,546,934 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 11,349.3% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,927,607 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $185,551,000 after purchasing an additional 1,910,771 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the first quarter valued at approximately $153,576,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 17.2% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,470,320 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $611,316,000 after buying an additional 951,233 shares during the period. Finally, AustralianSuper Pty Ltd increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 127.6% during the first quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 1,496,339 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $144,038,000 after buying an additional 839,028 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on FTNT. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Fortinet from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on Fortinet from $87.00 to $75.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Fortinet in a research note on Monday, May 12th. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $105.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Fortinet from $105.00 to $87.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-five have issued a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.93.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet 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 value of $46,935,174.08. Following the sale, the vice president owned 9,730,560 shares in the company, valued at $958,265,548.80. This trade represents a 4.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director William H. Neukom bought 335 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Friday, June 6th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $104.22 per share, for a total transaction of $34,913.70. Following the purchase, the director owned 301,471 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,419,307.62. This trade represents a 0.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 17.20% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Trading Up 1.1%

FTNT stock opened at $79.33 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $100.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $101.18. Fortinet, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $70.12 and a fifty-two week high of $114.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.33. The firm has a market cap of $60.79 billion, a PE ratio of 31.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.07.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.05. Fortinet had a return on equity of 111.46% and a net margin of 30.60%. The company had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.57 EPS. Fortinet’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Fortinet

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.