Park Avenue Securities LLC Trims Stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Park Avenue Securities LLC cut its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 14.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,841 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 1,153 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $467,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth about $203,501,000. Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 358.1% in the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 1,644,139 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $96,478,000 after purchasing an additional 1,285,197 shares during the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 223.6% in the fourth quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 1,366,467 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $79,979,000 after purchasing an additional 944,161 shares during the last quarter. Carmignac Gestion grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 3,383.8% in the fourth quarter. Carmignac Gestion now owns 720,902 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $42,194,000 after purchasing an additional 700,209 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 131.4% in the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 975,495 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $57,242,000 after purchasing an additional 553,872 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,235 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.53, for a total transaction of $1,442,709.55. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,742,483 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,901,640,012.99. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director William H. Neukom acquired 586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $59.55 per share, with a total value of $34,896.30. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 295,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,613,579.90. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,235 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.53, for a total transaction of $1,442,709.55. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,742,483 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,901,640,012.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 91,638 shares of company stock valued at $5,705,568. 18.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Fortinet from $81.00 to $75.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $71.00 to $68.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Susquehanna dropped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $80.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 6th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $78.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a report on Wednesday, May 22nd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald dropped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $65.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $70.03.

Fortinet Stock Performance

FTNT opened at $60.27 on Friday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.12 and a 12-month high of $81.24. The company has a current ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.04 billion, a PE ratio of 39.39, a P/E/G ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.98. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $60.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of $63.66.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. Fortinet had a net margin of 22.23% and a negative return on equity of 2,235.48%. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.29 EPS. Fortinet’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.46 EPS 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.