Insider Selling: Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) EVP Sells $448,218.68 in Stock

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) EVP Patrice Perche sold 8,918 shares of Fortinet 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 25,730 shares in the company, valued at $1,293,189.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

Patrice Perche also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, October 23rd, Patrice Perche sold 7,535 shares of Fortinet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.13, for a total value of $422,939.55.
• On Thursday, September 21st, Patrice Perche sold 7,530 shares of Fortinet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.10, for a total value of $445,023.00.
• On Monday, August 21st, Patrice Perche sold 7,535 shares of Fortinet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.29, for a total value of $439,215.15.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $50.48 on Monday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.12 and a 1-year high of $81.24. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $59.09 and its 200 day moving average is $65.46. The company has a market cap of $39.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.81, 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.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 2nd. The software maker reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $1.33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.35 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.28 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its stake in Fortinet by 4.2% in the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 198,363 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $14,994,000 after buying an additional 7,997 shares during the last quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the first quarter valued at about $230,000. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. raised its stake in Fortinet by 4.5% in the first quarter. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. now owns 340,990 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $22,662,000 after buying an additional 14,600 shares during the last quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 7.1% in the second quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 133,639 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $10,102,000 after purchasing an additional 8,874 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 9.6% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 75,744 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $5,725,000 after purchasing an additional 6,622 shares during the last quarter. 65.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on FTNT shares. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Fortinet from $68.00 to $55.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective (down from $71.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday, October 13th. Jefferies Financial Group cut Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $85.00 to $65.00 in a report on Thursday, October 19th. Cantor Fitzgerald cut Fortinet from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $75.00 to $50.00 in a report on Friday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Fortinet from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 4th. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.94.

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.