Short Interest in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Rises By 32.2%

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) was the target of a large growth in short interest in 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 short-interest ratio is presently 4.0 days. Approximately 2.9% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT traded down $0.42 on Tuesday, hitting $96.25. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,601,253 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,773,896. Fortinet has a 12 month low of $54.57 and a 12 month high of $114.82. The company has a market capitalization of $74.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $102.15 and its two-hundred day moving average is $91.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director William H. Neukom acquired 328 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $106.33 per share, with a total value of $34,876.24. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 300,006 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,899,637.98. This trade represents a 0.11 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 326,784 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.17, for a total value of $32,080,385.28. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 11,000,068 shares in the company, valued at $1,079,876,675.56. This trade represents a 2.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 599,988 shares of company stock valued at $59,094,530 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at $724,048,000. Schroder Investment Management Group acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at $389,867,000. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 77.2% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,531,705 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $617,115,000 after buying an additional 2,846,475 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 39.3% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $720,150,000 after buying an additional 2,151,811 shares during the period. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 72.6% in the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 4,906,439 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $463,561,000 after buying an additional 2,064,016 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Bank of America boosted their price target on Fortinet from $87.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on Fortinet from $77.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Fortinet from $88.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Baird R W lowered Fortinet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $105.69.

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.