Short Interest in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Grows By 30.2%

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 16,610,000 shares, a growth of 30.2% from the May 15th total of 12,760,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 5,130,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.2 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total transaction of $1,593,300.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 10,867,018 shares in the company, valued at $700,705,320.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total transaction of $1,593,300.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 10,867,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $700,705,320.64. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,235 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now 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. Insiders have sold 91,638 shares of company stock valued at $5,705,568 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of FTNT. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 1.7% during the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,349,660 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $79,198,000 after buying an additional 22,294 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its position in Fortinet by 76.5% during the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 627,323 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $37,345,000 after acquiring an additional 271,799 shares during the last quarter. Prudential PLC boosted its stake in Fortinet by 15.5% in the third quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 186,127 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $10,922,000 after acquiring an additional 24,973 shares in the last quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Fortinet by 7.9% in the third quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 327,679 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $19,228,000 after acquiring an additional 24,107 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Phoenix Holdings Ltd. grew its holdings in Fortinet by 20.6% in the third quarter. Phoenix Holdings Ltd. now owns 24,635 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,446,000 after purchasing an additional 4,201 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Trading Up 0.9 %

FTNT stock traded up $0.55 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $60.78. 3,212,908 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,293,923. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $61.98 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $63.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $46.43 billion, a PE ratio of 39.73, a PEG ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.20. Fortinet has a one year low of $44.12 and a one year high of $81.24.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Susquehanna dropped their price target on Fortinet from $80.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Truist Financial cut their price target on Fortinet from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $82.00 to $70.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 3rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $71.00 to $68.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortinet currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $70.10.

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.