Sciencast Management LP Reduces Position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Sciencast Management LP decreased its stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 86.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,390 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 27,432 shares during the period. Sciencast Management LP’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $415,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pathstone Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 3.9% during the third quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 58,352 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $4,525,000 after purchasing an additional 2,196 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 11.1% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 19,580 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,518,000 after purchasing an additional 1,955 shares during the last quarter. Navellier & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the third quarter worth $204,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 1.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,817,859 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $296,075,000 after purchasing an additional 68,852 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meridian Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the third quarter worth $647,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Fortinet from $99.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $135.00 target price (up previously from $120.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday, February 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their target price on Fortinet from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their target price on Fortinet from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have given a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortinet has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $105.69.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In related news, Director William H. Neukom bought 328 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $106.33 per share, with a total value of $34,876.24. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 300,006 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,899,637.98. This trade represents a 0.11 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total value of $2,150,466.08. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 49,039,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,576,384,617.36. This trade represents a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 599,988 shares of company stock valued at $59,094,530 over the last three months. 18.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Fortinet Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $98.65 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.47. The firm has a market cap of $75.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.65, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1 year low of $54.57 and a 1 year high of $114.82. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $102.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $92.42.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share 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 analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortinet 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.