Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNTGet Free Report) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 14,520,000 shares, a growth of 5.8% from the August 31st total of 13,720,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 5,290,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.7 days.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,267 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.01, for a total value of $1,456,262.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,777,294 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,927,125,412.94. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,267 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.01, for a total value of $1,456,262.67. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,777,294 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,927,125,412.94. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction of $1,386,590.32. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 10,847,018 shares in the company, valued at $608,626,179.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 96,210 shares of company stock valued at $6,337,801 over the last three months. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vima LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Winthrop Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 135.6% during the 1st quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 377 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Oakworth Capital Inc. bought a new stake in Fortinet during the second quarter worth about $33,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of Fortinet stock opened at $76.49 on Wednesday. Fortinet has a 52-week low of $44.12 and a 52-week high of $78.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $58.43 billion, a PE ratio of 49.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 1.22. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $71.46 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $65.52.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNTGet Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.40 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 23.71% and a negative return on equity of 2,160.10%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.31 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Fortinet will post 1.72 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on FTNT. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Fortinet from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Rosenblatt Securities reduced their target price on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $68.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $78.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Twenty-three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Fortinet currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $71.57.

View Our Latest Report on Fortinet

About Fortinet

(Get Free Report)

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.

Further Reading

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