Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. Trims Stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 34.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,989 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 3,740 shares during the period. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $409,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 125,937.5% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 14,597,668 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $713,680,000 after purchasing an additional 14,586,086 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth $312,964,000. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 156.8% in the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 9,441,059 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $554,945,000 after purchasing an additional 5,765,174 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 79.6% in the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 3,576,224 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $209,853,000 after purchasing an additional 1,585,236 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DSM Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the third quarter worth $75,698,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortinet Price Performance

Fortinet stock opened at $64.66 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $49.34 billion, a PE ratio of 44.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.08. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.12 and a 12-month high of $81.24. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $68.72 and a 200-day moving average price of $61.50. 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 (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 5th. The software maker reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.42 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.41 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 21.64% and a negative return on equity of 7,572.46%. The firm’s revenue was up 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.38 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on FTNT shares. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $65.00 target price for the company. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $60.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Fortinet has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $72.03.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,992 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.75, for a total value of $1,553,482.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,660,648 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,150,776,958. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 38,369 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the vice president now owns 29,887,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,985,992,346.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,992 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.75, for a total transaction of $1,553,482.00. Following the transaction, 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. Insiders have sold 132,139 shares of company stock valued at $8,977,876 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 17.54% of the company’s stock.

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.