Cerity Partners LLC Cuts Position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Cerity Partners LLC lessened its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 47.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 359,221 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 317,938 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $21,026,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of FTNT. Headinvest LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the third quarter worth approximately $29,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. Retirement Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. Resurgent Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the third quarter worth approximately $37,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.40, for a total value of $1,691,751.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,625,005 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,471,825,357. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 38,369 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.45, for a total transaction of $2,549,620.05. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 29,887,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,985,992,346.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.40, for a total transaction of $1,691,751.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,625,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,471,825,357. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 108,147 shares of company stock worth $7,424,394. 17.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FTNT has been the topic of several analyst reports. Capital One Financial downgraded shares of Fortinet from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and set a $75.00 price objective (up previously from $50.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $60.00 to $62.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $72.35.

Fortinet Price Performance

Fortinet stock opened at $66.45 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $68.91 and a 200-day moving average price of $61.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $50.70 billion, a PE ratio of 45.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.12 and a 12-month high of $81.24.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its earnings results on Monday, February 5th. The software maker reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $1.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.41 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 21.64% and a negative return on equity of 7,572.46%. The business’s revenue was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.38 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

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.