Prescott Group Capital Management L.L.C. Purchases New Shares in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Prescott Group Capital Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 12,417 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $1,173,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in Fortinet during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $46,000. Private Trust Co. NA raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 95.0% in the fourth quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 630 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $60,000 after buying an additional 307 shares in the last quarter. R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $65,000. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 30.6% in the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 696 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $66,000 after buying an additional 163 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Trading Down 4.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $101.72 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $101.87 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $90.57. The stock has a market cap of $78.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52-week low of $54.57 and a 52-week high of $114.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Fortinet from $103.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Guggenheim restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $105.00 price objective (up previously from $85.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Wedbush upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $103.72.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director William H. Neukom acquired 328 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at $31,899,637.98. This trade represents a 0.11 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total transaction of $2,668,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 4,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $537,820.16. This trade represents a 83.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 87,120 shares of company stock valued at $8,991,409. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Company 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.