BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp Raises Stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 59.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 124,220 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 46,289 shares during the quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $7,487,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vima LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Winthrop Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 135.6% in the 1st quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 377 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 217 shares during the period. Creekmur Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Oakworth Capital Inc. purchased a new position in Fortinet during the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,267 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.01, for a total value of $1,456,262.67. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,777,294 shares in the company, valued at $2,927,125,412.94. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,267 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.01, for a total transaction of $1,456,262.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,777,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,927,125,412.94. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction of $1,386,590.32. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,847,018 shares in the company, valued at $608,626,179.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 96,210 shares of company stock worth $6,337,801. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on FTNT shares. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $73.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Rosenblatt Securities dropped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $68.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Guggenheim downgraded shares of Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Fortinet from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Twenty-three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $71.57.

Fortinet Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of FTNT opened at $76.61 on Thursday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.12 and a 12-month high of $78.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $58.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.07, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.00. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $69.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $65.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.40 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 23.71% and a negative return on equity of 2,160.10%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.31 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.72 EPS for the current year.

Fortinet 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.