Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Reduces Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System trimmed its position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 89,500 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 900 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $9,462,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Saudi Central Bank purchased a new position in Fortinet during the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 703.1% during the first quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 257 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. Clearstead Trust LLC purchased a new stake in Fortinet during the first quarter worth $28,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 2,184.6% in the first quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 297 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 284 shares during the period. Finally, ORG Partners LLC grew its holdings in Fortinet by 47.5% in the first quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 348 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 112 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Scotiabank decreased their target price on Fortinet from $115.00 to $85.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $67.00 target price (down previously from $78.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Fortinet from $105.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on Fortinet from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $105.00 to $78.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.03.

Fortinet Stock Down 1.7%

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $84.92 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $82.58 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $94.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $70.12 and a 12-month high of $114.82. The firm has a market cap of $65.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.83, a PEG ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.09.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Fortinet had a net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 111.46%. The business had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.57 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $5,061,072,243.92. The trade was a 0.31% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total transaction of $46,935,174.08. Following 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 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.