Merit Financial Group LLC Cuts Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Merit Financial Group LLC decreased its stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 157,520 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 1,114 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $16,653,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. OLD National Bancorp IN increased its holdings in Fortinet by 6.0% during the 2nd quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 210,554 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $22,260,000 after purchasing an additional 11,919 shares during the period. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 1,160.0% during the 2nd quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 882 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $93,000 after acquiring an additional 812 shares in the last quarter. Berger Financial Group Inc increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Berger Financial Group Inc now owns 57,798 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $6,110,000 after acquiring an additional 533 shares during the last quarter. Clarius Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 29.9% in the 2nd quarter. Clarius Group LLC now owns 5,514 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $583,000 after acquiring an additional 1,270 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quent Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 13.7% in the 2nd quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 2,475 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $262,000 after acquiring an additional 298 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on FTNT shares. Erste Group Bank downgraded Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 14th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Saturday, September 27th. KeyCorp downgraded Fortinet from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Fortinet from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price objective on Fortinet from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.03.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total value of $46,935,174.08. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 9,730,560 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $958,265,548.80. This trade represents a 4.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the firm’s 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 $15,607,701.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,391,879 shares of the company’s stock, 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. 17.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Fortinet Stock Down 0.6%

FTNT opened at $85.79 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 1.24. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $83.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $95.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $65.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.18, a P/E/G ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.09. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12 month low of $70.12 and a 12 month high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.63 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 111.46% and a net margin of 30.60%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.57 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.