Short Interest in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Grows By 32.2%

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNTGet Free Report) was the target of a large increase in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 17,960,000 shares, an increase of 32.2% from the February 13th total of 13,590,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 4,520,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.0 days. Approximately 2.9% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total transaction of $2,150,466.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 49,039,698 shares in the company, valued at $4,576,384,617.36. This represents a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 17,660 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $109.18, for a total transaction of $1,928,118.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 4,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $517,076.48. This trade represents a 78.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 622,904 shares of company stock worth $61,338,694. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at $724,048,000. Schroder Investment Management Group purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at $389,867,000. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 77.2% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,531,705 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $617,115,000 after purchasing an additional 2,846,475 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 39.3% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $720,150,000 after purchasing an additional 2,151,811 shares during the period. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. raised its holdings in Fortinet by 72.6% in the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 4,906,439 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $463,561,000 after acquiring an additional 2,064,016 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortinet Price Performance

FTNT opened at $96.25 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. Fortinet has a 52-week low of $54.57 and a 52-week high of $114.82. The company has a 50 day moving average of $102.17 and a two-hundred day moving average of $91.79. The company has a market cap of $74.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.59, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNTGet Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a net margin of 29.30% and a return on equity of 256.53%. On average, analysts expect that Fortinet will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on FTNT shares. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Baird R W downgraded shares of Fortinet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $105.00 target price (up from $85.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $103.72.

View Our Latest Stock Report on Fortinet

Fortinet Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

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.

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