Motley Fool Asset Management LLC Raises Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Motley Fool Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 15.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 41,703 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,539 shares during the quarter. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $3,940,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 14.7% during the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 25,760 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,998,000 after purchasing an additional 3,300 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 21.0% during the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 50,096 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,885,000 after buying an additional 8,708 shares during the period. Erste Asset Management GmbH acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the third quarter valued at $93,000. Investment Management Corp of Ontario raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 49.0% in the 3rd quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario now owns 21,601 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,675,000 after buying an additional 7,100 shares during the period. Finally, Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC lifted its stake in Fortinet by 10.0% during the 3rd quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 12,005 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $931,000 after acquiring an additional 1,088 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FTNT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $112.00 price objective (up from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their target price on Fortinet from $115.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $105.77.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director William H. Neukom acquired 328 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $106.33 per share, with a total value of $34,876.24. Following the purchase, the director now owns 300,006 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,899,637.98. This represents a 0.11 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 326,784 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.17, for a total transaction of $32,080,385.28. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 11,000,068 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,079,876,675.56. This trade represents a 2.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 599,988 shares of company stock valued at $59,094,530. 18.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Fortinet Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $98.08 on Thursday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $54.57 and a 1-year high of $114.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The stock has a market cap of $75.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.40, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $102.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $93.71.

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

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.