Meritage Portfolio Management Has $26.27 Million Position in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Meritage Portfolio Management lowered its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 26.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 248,436 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 89,442 shares during the quarter. Fortinet makes up 1.7% of Meritage Portfolio Management’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Meritage Portfolio Management’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $26,265,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Dover Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Dover Advisors LLC now owns 9,451 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $999,000 after purchasing an additional 94 shares in the last quarter. Hemington Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 13.2% in the 2nd quarter. Hemington Wealth Management now owns 851 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $89,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Peloton Wealth Strategists raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Peloton Wealth Strategists now owns 4,330 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $417,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 3.6% in the 2nd quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 2,852 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $302,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Board of the Pension Protection Fund raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 4.5% in the 2nd quarter. Board of the Pension Protection Fund now owns 2,300 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $243,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on FTNT. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $85.00 price target (down previously from $110.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Monday, August 18th. Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday. Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $125.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, DZ Bank raised shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $97.03.

Fortinet Stock Down 3.6%

NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $83.06 on Friday. 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. Fortinet, Inc. has a twelve month low of $70.12 and a twelve month high of $114.82. 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 company’s 50 day moving average is $81.72 and its two-hundred day moving average is $94.55.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,391,879 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,061,072,243.92. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 9,730,560 shares in the company, valued at $958,265,548.80. This trade represents a 4.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 17.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.