AustralianSuper Pty Ltd Acquires 601,801 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

AustralianSuper Pty Ltd raised its position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 1,084.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 657,311 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 601,801 shares during the quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd owned 0.09% of Fortinet worth $62,103,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Eastern Bank acquired a new position in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC grew its holdings in 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 buying an additional 173 shares in the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at $46,000. Finally, R Squared Ltd acquired a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at $65,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on FTNT shares. Baird R W lowered Fortinet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $135.00 target price (up from $120.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday, February 7th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Fortinet from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $105.00 target price (up from $85.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Fortinet from $103.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $103.72.

Fortinet Price Performance

Fortinet stock opened at $111.64 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The company has a market capitalization of $85.57 billion, a PE ratio of 49.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.01. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12 month low of $54.57 and a 12 month high of $112.37. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $98.60 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $86.37.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 463.85% and a net margin of 29.30%. Analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.05 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 22,916 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.93, for a total value of $2,244,163.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,983,683 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,796,972,076.19. The trade was a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director William H. Neukom bought 355 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $98.50 per share, with a total value of $34,967.50. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 150,245 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,799,132.50. This represents a 0.24 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold 67,860 shares of company stock worth $6,469,056 over the last ninety days. 18.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.