Northern Trust Corp Sells 203,673 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Northern Trust Corp lessened its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 3.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 6,306,205 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 203,673 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp owned 0.82% of Fortinet worth $369,102,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 156.8% during the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 9,441,059 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $554,945,000 after acquiring an additional 5,765,174 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,664,124 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $508,411,000 after acquiring an additional 108,548 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,595,608 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $328,350,000 after acquiring an additional 269,202 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at $203,501,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 17.6% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,926,924 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $171,313,000 after acquiring an additional 438,476 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, Director William H. Neukom bought 586 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 6th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $59.55 per share, with a total value of $34,896.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 295,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,613,579.90. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Fortinet news, Director William H. Neukom purchased 586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 6th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $59.55 per share, for a total transaction of $34,896.30. Following the purchase, the director now owns 295,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,613,579.90. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,992 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.75, for a total transaction of $1,553,482.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,660,648 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,150,776,958. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 91,097 shares of company stock valued at $5,954,610. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of Fortinet stock opened at $59.72 on Friday. Fortinet, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.12 and a fifty-two week high of $81.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 1.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.98. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $63.08 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $62.90.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 22.23% and a negative return on equity of 2,235.48%. Fortinet’s revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.29 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on FTNT. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Fortinet from $81.00 to $73.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of Fortinet from $82.00 to $70.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, HSBC reduced their target price on shares of Fortinet from $57.00 to $54.00 and set a “reduce” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $70.10.

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.