Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Short Interest Up 32.2% in February

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 17,960,000 shares, a growth of 32.2% from the February 13th total of 13,590,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 4,520,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.0 days. Approximately 2.9% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on FTNT shares. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $114.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on Fortinet from $77.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Fortinet from $97.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. KeyCorp upgraded Fortinet from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $115.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $105.69.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total value of $2,150,466.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 49,039,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,576,384,617.36. This trade represents a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kenneth A. Goldman sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total transaction of $200,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 18,612 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,861,200. This represents a 9.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 599,988 shares of company stock valued at $59,094,530. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. First Hawaiian Bank acquired a new position in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth about $670,000. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 10.7% during the 4th quarter. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI now owns 89,827 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $8,487,000 after purchasing an additional 8,707 shares during the last quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 17.8% in the fourth quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. now owns 23,499 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,220,000 after purchasing an additional 3,544 shares in the last quarter. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 129.9% in the fourth quarter. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 299,989 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $28,343,000 after purchasing an additional 169,530 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new position in Fortinet during the third quarter worth approximately $10,343,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of Fortinet stock opened at $96.91 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. Fortinet has a twelve month low of $54.57 and a twelve month high of $114.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $74.52 billion, a PE ratio of 42.88, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $102.17 and its 200 day moving average price is $92.08.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Fortinet will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.