Is Fortinet Inc (FTNT) A Good Investment Right Now?

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Judging by the fact that Fortinet Inc (NASDAQ:FTNT) has faced bearish sentiment from the smart money, logic holds that there lies a certain “tier” of money managers that elected to cut their entire stakes heading into Q4. At the top of the heap, Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management dumped the biggest position of all the hedgies monitored by Insider Monkey (the fund was closed during Q3), and George Hall’s Clinton Group was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $3.2 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 1 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Fortinet Inc (NASDAQ:FTNT). These stocks are athenahealth, Inc (NASDAQ:ATHN), Pinnacle Foods Inc (NYSE:PF), Carter’s, Inc. (NYSE:CRI), and Six Flags Entertainment Corp (NYSE:SIX). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble FTNT’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
ATHN 15 156671 -5
PF 41 1449617 8
CRI 35 1037585 -3
SIX 28 1041188 -4

As you can see these stocks had an average of 29.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $921 million. That figure was $439 million in FTNT’s case. Pinnacle Foods Inc (NYSE:PF) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand athenahealth, Inc (NASDAQ:ATHN) is the least popular one with only 15 bullish hedge fund positions. Fortinet Inc (NASDAQ:FTNT) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard PF might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

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