First Merchants Corp Has $9.69 Million Position in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

First Merchants Corp reduced its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 91,635 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 2,354 shares during the period. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $9,688,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of FTNT. Saudi Central Bank bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the first quarter worth $25,000. Clearstead Trust LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the first quarter worth $28,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2,184.6% during the first quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 297 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 284 shares during the period. ORG Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 47.5% during the first quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 348 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares during the period. Finally, EQ Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the first quarter worth $35,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on FTNT shares. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $105.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and set a $85.00 price objective (down from $125.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Wedbush dropped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered shares of Fortinet from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.03.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of FTNT opened at $86.46 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $82.28 and a 200-day moving average of $94.82. Fortinet, Inc. has a one year low of $70.12 and a one year high of $114.82. The company has a market cap of $66.25 billion, a PE ratio of 34.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.09. 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 (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.05. Fortinet had a net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 111.46%. The company had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.57 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

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

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.