Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Sells 76,803 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI cut its position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 82.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 16,275 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 76,803 shares during the quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $1,112,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 664.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 35,137,089 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,400,215,000 after purchasing an additional 30,542,551 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at about $203,501,000. Sarasin & Partners LLP bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the first quarter valued at about $120,746,000. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 102.5% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 3,284,203 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $224,344,000 after buying an additional 1,662,156 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parnassus Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 223.6% in the fourth quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 1,366,467 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $79,979,000 after acquiring an additional 944,161 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Trading Down 1.2 %

NASDAQ FTNT traded down $0.69 during trading on Friday, hitting $56.51. The company had a trading volume of 5,911,756 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,730,362. The company’s fifty day moving average is $59.25 and its 200-day moving average is $63.70. Fortinet, Inc. has a one year low of $44.12 and a one year high of $76.00. The company has a market cap of $43.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.98.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.34 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 2,235.48% and a net margin of 22.23%. The business’s revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.29 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.47 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on FTNT. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on Fortinet from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, Guggenheim cut shares of Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $70.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,235 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.53, for a total transaction of $1,442,709.55. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,742,483 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,901,640,012.99. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,235 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.53, for a total transaction of $1,442,709.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,742,483 shares in the company, valued at $2,901,640,012.99. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director William H. Neukom bought 586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 6th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $59.55 per share, for a total transaction of $34,896.30. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 295,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,613,579.90. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 67,203 shares of company stock valued at $4,015,048. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.