Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 9,860,000 shares, a decrease of 5.2% from the August 15th total of 10,400,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 6,250,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.6 days.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director William H. Neukom acquired 552 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 8th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $63.28 per share, for a total transaction of $34,930.56. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 291,551 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,449,347.28. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, Director William H. Neukom acquired 552 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 8th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $63.28 per share, for a total transaction of $34,930.56. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 291,551 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,449,347.28. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 5,100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.20, for a total value of $291,720.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,578 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $261,861.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 67,218 shares of company stock worth $4,429,412 over the last 90 days. 17.54% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Penserra Capital Management LLC raised its position in Fortinet by 6.6% in the 1st quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 663 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $226,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 5.2% during the first quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 863 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $295,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 6.1% during the first quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 867 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $296,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 53.3% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 164 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $56,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sawtooth Solutions LLC raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 3.7% during the first quarter. Sawtooth Solutions LLC now owns 1,872 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $640,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 65.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on FTNT shares. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Fortinet from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 4th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on Fortinet from $90.00 to $71.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 4th. Wedbush reduced their target price on Fortinet from $70.00 to $69.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 4th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $72.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, September 14th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $75.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, July 18th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $73.10.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $60.45 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $66.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $66.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.09. Fortinet has a 12 month low of $42.61 and a 12 month high of $81.24. The company has a market capitalization of $47.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 1.16.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 3rd. The software maker reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.04. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 698.28% and a net margin of 21.24%. The firm had revenue of $1.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.18 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Fortinet will post 1.24 EPS for the current year.

About Fortinet

Fortinet, Inc provides cybersecurity and networking solutions worldwide. It offers FortiGate hardware and software licenses that provide various security and networking functions, including firewall, intrusion prevention, anti-malware, virtual private network, application control, web filtering, anti-spam, and wide area network acceleration.