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

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) was the target of a large increase in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 17,960,000 shares, an increase of 32.2% from the February 13th total of 13,590,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 4,520,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.0 days. Currently, 2.9% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT traded down $0.42 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $96.25. 1,601,253 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,773,896. The stock has a market cap of $74.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.58, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. Fortinet has a twelve month low of $54.57 and a twelve month high of $114.82. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $102.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $91.93.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. On average, research analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other news, Director Kenneth A. Goldman sold 2,000 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total transaction of $200,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 18,612 shares in the company, valued at $1,861,200. The trade was a 9.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total value of $2,150,466.08. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 49,039,698 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,576,384,617.36. This represents a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 599,988 shares of company stock worth $59,094,530 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Fortinet by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,115,470 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $6,435,550,000 after purchasing an additional 730,994 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Fortinet by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,281,279 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,115,663,000 after buying an additional 766,135 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Fortinet by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,270,913 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,440,648,000 after buying an additional 387,901 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Fortinet by 31.3% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,388,693 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $792,564,000 after buying an additional 2,000,888 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at about $724,048,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on FTNT shares. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $87.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $77.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $112.00 price target (up from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $105.69.

Fortinet Company Profile

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.