Michael Xie Sells 326,784 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) VP Michael Xie sold 326,784 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.17, for a total transaction of $32,080,385.28. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 11,000,068 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,079,876,675.56. The trade was a 2.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of Fortinet stock opened at $97.93 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The company has a market cap of $75.31 billion, a PE ratio of 43.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a 50 day moving average of $102.22 and a 200-day moving average of $91.41. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $54.57 and a 1-year high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on FTNT. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $135.00 price objective (up from $120.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Baird R W downgraded Fortinet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their target price on Fortinet from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price target on Fortinet from $115.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $103.72.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of FTNT. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. acquired a new position in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Oarsman Capital Inc. increased its position in Fortinet by 188.9% during the 4th quarter. Oarsman Capital Inc. now owns 416 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 272 shares in the last quarter. Graney & King LLC bought a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Finally, Banque Transatlantique SA acquired a new stake in Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.