Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC Makes New $651,000 Investment in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 6,895 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $651,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Eastern Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the third quarter worth about $25,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the third quarter worth $26,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 73.3% in the 3rd quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 409 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares in the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Finally, R Squared Ltd acquired a new position in Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth $65,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Fortinet stock opened at $110.02 on Monday. 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 current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $100.12 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $88.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $84.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.68, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.01.

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

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total value of $2,150,466.08. Following the completion of 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. The trade was a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 17,650 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.66, for a total transaction of $1,688,399.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $448,549.74. This represents a 79.01 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 87,110 shares of company stock valued at $8,751,689 in the last three months. 18.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on FTNT shares. HSBC upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $83.00 to $111.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $103.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Guggenheim reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have given a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $103.72.

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.