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

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) 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:FTNT) 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.

Fortinet Company Profile

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.