Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT – Get Free Report) saw a significant increase in short interest during the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 12,310,000 shares, an increase of 6.7% from the November 15th total of 11,540,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 6,720,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.8 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 25,885 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Friday, December 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.29, for a total value of $1,327,641.65. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 29,907,018 shares in the company, valued at $1,533,930,953.22. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Patrice Perche sold 7,530 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.10, for a total transaction of $445,023.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 25,730 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,520,643. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 25,885 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.29, for a total transaction of $1,327,641.65. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 29,907,018 shares in the company, valued at $1,533,930,953.22. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 79,678 shares of company stock valued at $4,222,696 over the last quarter. 17.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FTNT. Covestor Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 53.3% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 164 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $56,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet during the second quarter worth about $30,000. GeoWealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet during the second quarter worth about $30,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet during the second quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Zions Bancorporation N.A. lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 20.4% during the first quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 430 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $147,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. 65.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on FTNT. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Fortinet from $68.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 16th. William Blair downgraded Fortinet from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 3rd. Rosenblatt Securities dropped their price objective on Fortinet from $75.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 3rd. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Fortinet from $73.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 29th. Finally, HSBC reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $49.00 price objective (down previously from $75.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Monday, November 6th. Twenty investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortinet has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $65.68.

Get Our Latest Analysis on FTNT

Fortinet Trading Down 2.2 %

Shares of FTNT stock traded down $1.29 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $56.54. 4,716,568 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,883,388. The firm has a market cap of $43.42 billion, a PE ratio of 39.49, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.05. Fortinet has a 1 year low of $44.12 and a 1 year high of $81.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $54.33 and a 200 day moving average of $62.56.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 2nd. The software maker reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.35 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 3,361.82% and a net margin of 22.25%. The company’s revenue was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.28 EPS. Analysts expect that Fortinet will post 1.29 earnings per share for the current year.

About Fortinet (Get Free Report)

Fortinet, Inc provides cybersecurity and networking solutions worldwide. It offers FortiGate hardware and software licenses that provide various security and networking functions, including firewall, intrusion prevention, anti-malware, virtual private network, application control, web filtering, anti-spam, and wide area network acceleration.

Read More

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat’s editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected].

Before you consider Fortinet, you’ll want to hear this.

MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street’s top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on… and Fortinet wasn’t on the list.

While Fortinet currently has a “Hold” rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.

View The Five Stocks Here

Click the link below and we’ll send you MarketBeat’s list of seven stocks and why their long-term outlooks are very promising.

Get This Free Report

Original: MarketBeat News Feed: Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest