Banco Santander S.A. Sells 105,596 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Banco Santander S.A. reduced its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 36.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 186,469 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 105,596 shares during the period. Banco Santander S.A.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $17,618,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new stake in Fortinet during the third quarter worth $26,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $46,000. Private Trust Co. NA lifted its stake in Fortinet by 95.0% during the fourth quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 630 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 307 shares during the last quarter. R Squared Ltd bought a new stake in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $65,000. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Fortinet by 30.6% during the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 696 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $66,000 after purchasing an additional 163 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FTNT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $105.00 target price (up from $85.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $88.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $99.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Baird R W downgraded shares of Fortinet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $103.72.

Fortinet Stock Performance

FTNT stock opened at $101.28 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $101.95 and a 200-day moving average price of $90.64. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $54.57 and a 1-year high of $114.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market cap of $77.88 billion, a PE ratio of 44.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 22,916 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.93, for a total value of $2,244,163.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,983,683 shares in the company, valued at $4,796,972,076.19. This trade represents a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total value of $2,668,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 4,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $537,820.16. This represents a 83.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 87,120 shares of company stock worth $8,991,409 in the last three months. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

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.