Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT Holdings Trimmed by Teacher Retirement System of Texas

Teacher Retirement System of Texas trimmed its position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 20.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 386,379 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 101,481 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Fortinet were worth $40,848,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 71,662,404 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $6,898,223,000 after buying an additional 3,546,934 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 40.9% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,971,648 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $561,156,000 after buying an additional 1,733,670 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at $153,576,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 17.1% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 7,016,467 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $675,405,000 after buying an additional 1,026,277 shares during the period. Finally, Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 2nd quarter valued at $108,056,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on FTNT shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $105.00 to $87.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. DZ Bank raised shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $105.00 to $78.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.03.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $85.29 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $65.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.98, a PEG ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.09. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $82.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $93.83. Fortinet, Inc. has a twelve month low of $70.12 and a twelve month high of $114.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.63 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 111.46%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.57 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total value of $46,935,174.08. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 9,730,560 shares in the company, valued at $958,265,548.80. This represents a 4.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total transaction of $15,607,701.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $5,061,072,243.92. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 18.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.