Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Shares Gap Down Following Insider Selling

Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) gapped down before the market opened on Friday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock had previously closed at $65.20, but opened at $61.86. Fortinet shares last traded at $61.08, with a volume of 4,444,724 shares trading hands.

Specifically, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.07, for a total value of $3,183,021.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 51,813,638 shares in the company, valued at $3,578,767,976.66. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.07, for a total value of $3,183,021.88. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 51,813,638 shares in the company, valued at $3,578,767,976.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total value of $1,593,300.80. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,867,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $700,705,320.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 118,480 shares of company stock worth $8,021,556. Company insiders own 17.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on FTNT. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Fortinet from $81.00 to $73.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Fortinet from $81.00 to $75.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $80.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $70.68.

Fortinet Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $44.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a fifty day moving average of $67.71 and a 200-day moving average of $61.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.06.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.34 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 7,572.46% and a net margin of 21.64%. The business’s revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.29 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Signaturefd LLC increased its holdings in Fortinet by 42.0% in the 1st quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 15,084 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,030,000 after acquiring an additional 4,461 shares during the last quarter. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the first quarter valued at approximately $14,847,000. GSA Capital Partners LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $569,000. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division bought a new position in Fortinet in the 1st quarter worth approximately $190,000. Finally, Chase Investment Counsel Corp grew its stake in Fortinet by 124.4% in the 1st quarter. Chase Investment Counsel Corp now owns 22,137 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,512,000 after buying an additional 12,270 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.