Ken Xie Sells 158,488 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) CEO Ken Xie sold 158,488 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.10, for a total transaction of $16,815,576.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $5,452,678,361.90. This represents a 0.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Ken Xie also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, March 10th, Ken Xie sold 206,000 shares of Fortinet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.93, for a total transaction of $19,967,580.00.

Fortinet Stock Performance

FTNT opened at $107.33 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $82.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.49, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a fifty day moving average of $98.64 and a 200 day moving average of $97.08. Fortinet, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $54.57 and a fifty-two week high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FTNT. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Fortinet by 39.8% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 315,408 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $30,361,000 after purchasing an additional 89,833 shares in the last quarter. Westover Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at about $879,000. Cetera Investment Advisers purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at about $14,804,000. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. grew its position in Fortinet by 30.7% in the first quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 18,610 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,791,000 after acquiring an additional 4,375 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Journey Strategic Wealth LLC increased its stake in Fortinet by 10.1% during the first quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 4,415 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $425,000 after acquiring an additional 406 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on FTNT shares. Baird R W downgraded shares of Fortinet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. StockNews.com lowered Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their target price on Fortinet from $115.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Fortinet from $97.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have issued a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $107.07.

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.