Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC Reduces Position in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC lessened its position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 22.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,045 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 306 shares during the quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $101,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Synovus Financial Corp grew its stake in Fortinet by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 30,854 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,970,000 after buying an additional 220 shares during the last quarter. ICONIQ Capital LLC grew its stake in Fortinet by 20.2% during the 1st quarter. ICONIQ Capital LLC now owns 3,926 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $378,000 after buying an additional 660 shares during the last quarter. Quantitative Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet during the 1st quarter worth approximately $615,000. Axiom Investors LLC DE purchased a new position in Fortinet during the 1st quarter worth approximately $578,000. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Fortinet by 20.3% during the 1st quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 4,702 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $454,000 after buying an additional 795 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FTNT has been the topic of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley downgraded Fortinet from an “overweight” rating to a “reduce” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $110.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Fortinet in a research note on Monday, May 12th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $85.00 target price (down from $110.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Monday, August 18th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on Fortinet from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $85.00 target price (down from $125.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $97.40.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total value of $46,935,174.08. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 9,730,560 shares in the company, valued at $958,265,548.80. The trade was a 4.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total value of $15,607,701.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,061,072,243.92. This trade represents a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 17.20% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Stock Up 0.6%

Fortinet stock opened at $78.13 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 1.24. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $70.12 and a 1-year high of $114.82. The company has a market cap of $59.87 billion, a PE ratio of 31.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.07. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $95.54 and its 200 day moving average price is $99.57.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.05. Fortinet had a return on equity of 111.46% and a net margin of 30.60%.The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.57 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.