South Dakota Investment Council Cuts Stake in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

South Dakota Investment Council reduced its holdings in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 52.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,985 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 6,484 shares during the quarter. South Dakota Investment Council’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $633,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Dover Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 1.0% during the second 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. Balboa Wealth Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 4.3% during the second quarter. Balboa Wealth Partners now owns 2,330 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $246,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Hemington Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 13.2% during the second 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 lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2.4% during the first 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. Finally, Trust Co. of Vermont lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 3.6% during the second 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. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on Fortinet from $105.00 to $78.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 8th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on Fortinet from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 9th. KeyCorp downgraded Fortinet from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on Fortinet from $110.00 to $90.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortinet has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.03.

Insider Activity

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 3,546 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.53, for a total transaction of $306,835.38. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 10,492,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $907,874,317.54. This trade represents a 0.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,485 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.51, for a total value of $13,710,537.35. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,445,911,452.29. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 17.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Fortinet Stock Down 2.6%

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $85.22 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $82.91 and its 200-day moving average price is $93.33. The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52 week low of $70.12 and a 52 week high of $114.82. The company has a market capitalization of $65.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.09.

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

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.