King Luther Capital Management Corp Decreases Stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

King Luther Capital Management Corp cut its holdings in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 1.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 319,102 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 4,173 shares during the period. King Luther Capital Management Corp’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $30,717,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. grew its stake in Fortinet by 703.1% in the first quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 257 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. Clearstead Trust LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. ORG Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 47.5% in the 1st quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 348 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares in the last quarter. EQ Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, Wayfinding Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $36,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Fortinet news, Director William H. Neukom bought 335 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 6th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $104.22 per share, with a total value of $34,913.70. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 301,471 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,419,307.62. This represents a 0.11% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of the 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 $46,935,174.08. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 9,730,560 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $958,265,548.80. This represents a 4.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 18.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on FTNT. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $113.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on Fortinet from $105.00 to $78.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Morgan Stanley downgraded Fortinet from an “overweight” rating to a “reduce” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $110.00 to $78.00 in a report on Thursday. Finally, Mizuho dropped their target price on Fortinet from $87.00 to $75.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-five have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.93.

Fortinet Trading Down 1.2%

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $74.39 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $56.94 billion, a PE ratio of 29.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.07. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1 year low of $67.97 and a 1 year high of $114.82. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $101.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $101.65.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 111.46% and a net margin of 30.60%. The firm’s revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.57 EPS. Analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal 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.