Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of 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. Approximately 2.9% of the company's shares are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 4,520,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.0 days.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 326,784 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.17, for a total value of $32,080,385.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 11,000,068 shares in the company, valued at $1,079,876,675.56. The trade was a 2.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total transaction of $2,668,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,736 shares in the company, valued at approximately $537,820.16. This trade represents a 83.23 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 599,988 shares of company stock worth $59,094,530. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. First Hawaiian Bank purchased a new stake in Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at about $670,000. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI increased its position in Fortinet by 10.7% during the 4th quarter. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI now owns 89,827 shares of the software maker's stock worth $8,487,000 after purchasing an additional 8,707 shares in the last quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 17.8% in the 4th quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. now owns 23,499 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $2,220,000 after acquiring an additional 3,544 shares during the period. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. increased its holdings in Fortinet by 129.9% in the 4th quarter. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 299,989 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $28,343,000 after purchasing an additional 169,530 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new position in Fortinet in the third quarter valued at about $10,343,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FTNT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $103.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $114.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $99.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. KeyCorp upgraded Fortinet from a "sector weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $115.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their target price on Fortinet from $115.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research note 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $105.69.

Fortinet Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of FTNT stock traded up $0.32 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $98.49. 2,456,309 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,780,657. The stock has a market cap of $75.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.60, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. Fortinet has a fifty-two week low of $54.57 and a fifty-two week high of $114.82. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $102.21 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $92.12.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share (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%. Equities analysts expect that Fortinet will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.