Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Hits New 1-Year Low Following Insider Selling

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)’s stock price reached a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Friday following insider selling activity. The company traded as low as $44.12 and last traded at $47.78, with a volume of 9102493 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $57.59.

Specifically, EVP Patrice Perche sold 8,918 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.26, for a total value of $448,218.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 25,730 shares in the company, valued at $1,293,189.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Patrice Perche sold 8,918 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.26, for a total transaction of $448,218.68. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 25,730 shares in the company, valued at $1,293,189.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director William H. Neukom purchased 552 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 8th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $63.28 per share, for a total transaction of $34,930.56. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 291,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,449,347.28. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 61,333 shares of company stock worth $3,505,054. 17.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on FTNT shares. Stifel Nicolaus lowered Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $69.00 to $52.00 in a research report on Friday. HSBC initiated coverage on Fortinet in a research note on Friday, September 29th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $75.00 target price for the company. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $85.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 19th. DZ Bank started coverage on Fortinet in a research note on Wednesday, October 18th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $58.00 target price for the company. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortinet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.94.

Fortinet Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $39.64 billion, a PE ratio of 37.96, a PEG ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.09, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $59.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $65.49.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 2nd. The software maker reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.05. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 698.28% and a net margin of 21.24%. The firm had revenue of $1.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.35 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.28 earnings per share. Fortinet’s quarterly revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.24 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of FTNT. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in Fortinet by 24.1% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 391,345 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $133,738,000 after purchasing an additional 76,027 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. grew its holdings in Fortinet by 24.0% in the first quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 2,280 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $779,000 after purchasing an additional 441 shares during the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. grew its holdings in Fortinet by 20.4% in the first quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 430 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $147,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. grew its holdings in Fortinet by 209.4% in the first quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 1,550 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $530,000 after purchasing an additional 1,049 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd grew its holdings in Fortinet by 53.3% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 164 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $56,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.00% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Company Profile

Fortinet, Inc provides cybersecurity and networking solutions worldwide. It offers FortiGate hardware and software licenses that provide various security and networking functions, including firewall, intrusion prevention, anti-malware, virtual private network, application control, web filtering, anti-spam, and wide area network acceleration.