Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT Shares Sold by Acadian Asset Management LLC

Acadian Asset Management LLC trimmed its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 3.2% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 2,798,551 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 92,944 shares during the quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $269,353,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Peloton Wealth Strategists boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 2.4% in the first quarter. Peloton Wealth Strategists now owns 4,330 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $417,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Hemington Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 16.6% during the 1st quarter. Hemington Wealth Management now owns 752 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $72,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 12,334 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,187,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares during the period. SageView Advisory Group LLC grew its holdings in Fortinet by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,166 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $305,000 after buying an additional 108 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Fortinet by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 26,285 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,530,000 after buying an additional 109 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on FTNT shares. Cowen lowered Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on Fortinet from $115.00 to $85.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Fortinet from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $85.00 target price (down from $110.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortinet has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.03.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $79.84 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $61.18 billion, a PE ratio of 31.81, a PEG ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.13. 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, Inc. has a 1-year low of $70.12 and a 1-year high of $114.82. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $91.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $97.45.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.05. Fortinet had a net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 111.46%. The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.57 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total value of $15,607,701.28. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total transaction of $46,935,174.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 9,730,560 shares in the company, valued at approximately $958,265,548.80. This represents a 4.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

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.