Conning Inc. Lowers Stock Position in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Conning Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 4.1% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,756 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 160 shares during the period. Conning Inc.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $397,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Fortinet by 5.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 71,662,404 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $6,898,223,000 after purchasing an additional 3,546,934 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,570,528 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $824,999,000 after buying an additional 181,835 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 17.1% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 7,016,467 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $675,405,000 after buying an additional 1,026,277 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,519,558 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $627,573,000 after buying an additional 49,238 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 40.9% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,971,648 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $561,156,000 after buying an additional 1,733,670 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $125.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Cowen cut shares of Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $95.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Fortinet from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Fortinet from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.03.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Fortinet Stock Down 3.6%

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $83.06 on Friday. 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 $63.64 billion, a PE ratio of 33.09, a P/E/G ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.09. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $81.72 and its 200 day moving average is $94.55.

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