Argent Capital Management LLC Lowers Stake in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Argent Capital Management LLC reduced its position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 0.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 613,204 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 1,257 shares during the quarter. Fortinet makes up about 1.9% of Argent Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest holding. Argent Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $64,828,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in Fortinet by 40.7% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 73,186 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $7,045,000 after buying an additional 21,177 shares in the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 38.4% in the first quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 6,794 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $654,000 after acquiring an additional 1,885 shares during the period. Gould Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the first quarter worth about $908,000. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC bought a new stake in Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $216,000. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 40.8% in the 1st quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 131,411 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $12,650,000 after purchasing an additional 38,080 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Fortinet Price Performance

FTNT opened at $85.01 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $87.01 and a 200 day moving average of $95.80. The stock has a market cap of $65.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.87, a PEG ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52-week low of $70.12 and a 52-week high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 111.46% and a net margin of 30.60%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.57 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FTNT has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $105.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Wedbush cut their target price on shares of Fortinet from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Mizuho decreased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $87.00 to $75.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Fortinet from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Erste Group Bank cut Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, twenty-five have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.03.

Insider Activity

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total value of $46,935,174.08. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 9,730,560 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $958,265,548.80. The trade was a 4.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total transaction of $15,607,701.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $5,061,072,243.92. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 18.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.