Russell Investments Group Ltd. Sells 168,516 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. decreased its holdings in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 18.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 749,044 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 168,516 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned 0.10% of Fortinet worth $43,874,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in Fortinet by 156.8% during the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 9,441,059 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $554,945,000 after purchasing an additional 5,765,174 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its position in Fortinet by 79.6% in the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 3,576,224 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $209,853,000 after acquiring an additional 1,585,236 shares in the last quarter. DSM Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Fortinet during the 3rd quarter valued at $75,698,000. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its holdings in Fortinet by 358.1% in the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 1,644,139 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $96,478,000 after buying an additional 1,285,197 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. raised its position in Fortinet by 569.5% in the 3rd quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 964,294 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $56,585,000 after buying an additional 820,257 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortinet Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $64.30 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $49.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.08. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.12 and a 12-month high of $81.24. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $67.88 and its 200-day moving average price is $61.83.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 5th. The software maker reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $1.42 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.41 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 7,572.46% and a net margin of 21.64%. The company’s revenue was up 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.38 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 38,369 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.45, for a total value of $2,549,620.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 29,887,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,985,992,346.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,992 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.75, for a total transaction of $1,553,482.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,660,648 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,150,776,958. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 38,369 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.45, for a total value of $2,549,620.05. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 29,887,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,985,992,346.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 132,139 shares of company stock valued at $8,977,876 over the last 90 days. 17.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on FTNT. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of Fortinet from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $75.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $60.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Citigroup downgraded Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $60.00 to $62.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Fortinet from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have issued a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $72.19.

About Fortinet

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.