Short Interest in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Grows By 5.9%

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 13,970,000 shares, a growth of 5.9% from the March 31st total of 13,190,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 5,740,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.4 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,992 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.75, for a total value of $1,553,482.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,660,648 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,150,776,958. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,992 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.75, for a total value of $1,553,482.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,660,648 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,150,776,958. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 38,369 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.45, for a total transaction of $2,549,620.05. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 29,887,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,985,992,346.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 132,139 shares of company stock valued at $8,977,876. Company insiders own 17.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FTNT. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in Fortinet by 156.8% during the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 9,441,059 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $554,945,000 after acquiring an additional 5,765,174 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $203,501,000. Sarasin & Partners LLP purchased a new stake in Fortinet during the first quarter valued at approximately $120,746,000. DSM Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the third quarter worth $75,698,000. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 358.1% in the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 1,644,139 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $96,478,000 after buying an additional 1,285,197 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on FTNT. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $65.00 target price on the stock. Capital One Financial cut shares of Fortinet from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. HSBC cut shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and set a $57.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have issued a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $72.19.

Fortinet Price Performance

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $63.53 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.19. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $67.78 and its 200-day moving average price is $61.87. Fortinet has a 52-week low of $44.12 and a 52-week high of $81.24. The company has a market cap of $48.49 billion, a PE ratio of 43.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.08.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its earnings results on Monday, February 5th. The software maker reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.08. Fortinet had a net margin of 21.64% and a negative return on equity of 7,572.46%. The company had revenue of $1.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.41 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.38 earnings per share. Fortinet’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Fortinet

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.