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

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) 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:FTNT) 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.

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.