Distillate Capital Partners LLC Makes New $16.47 Million Investment in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Distillate Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 273,281 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $16,471,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of FTNT. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at about $196,000. TCW Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $611,000. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Fortinet by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 250,398 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $14,656,000 after acquiring an additional 9,203 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its position in Fortinet by 30.2% during the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 1,675,718 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $98,080,000 after acquiring an additional 389,098 shares during the period. Finally, United Services Automobile Association grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 10.5% in the 4th quarter. United Services Automobile Association now owns 18,495 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,083,000 after purchasing an additional 1,758 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,267 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.01, for a total value of $1,456,262.67. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,777,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,927,125,412.94. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction of $1,386,590.32. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,847,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,267 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.01, for a total value of $1,456,262.67. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,777,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,927,125,412.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 96,210 shares of company stock valued at $6,337,801. Insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of Fortinet stock opened at $77.44 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $59.16 billion, a PE ratio of 50.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45. Fortinet, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.12 and a fifty-two week high of $78.08. The business’s fifty day moving average is $69.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $65.21.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 2,160.10% and a net margin of 23.71%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.31 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on FTNT shares. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com raised Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Guggenheim downgraded Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Fortinet from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Twenty-three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $71.57.

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.