California Public Employees Retirement System Grows Stock Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

California Public Employees Retirement System increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 57.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,743,571 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 634,455 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.23% of Fortinet worth $164,733,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. First Hawaiian Bank acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth about $670,000. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 10.7% during the 4th quarter. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI now owns 89,827 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $8,487,000 after purchasing an additional 8,707 shares during the period. Trilogy Capital Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 17.8% during the 4th quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. now owns 23,499 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,220,000 after purchasing an additional 3,544 shares in the last quarter. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 129.9% in the 4th quarter. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 299,989 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $28,343,000 after purchasing an additional 169,530 shares during the period. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in Fortinet during the third quarter worth $10,343,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other news, Director William H. Neukom bought 328 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were bought at an average price of $106.33 per share, with a total value of $34,876.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 300,006 shares in the company, valued at $31,899,637.98. This trade represents a 0.11 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total value of $2,668,660.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 4,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $537,820.16. This represents a 83.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 599,988 shares of company stock valued at $59,094,530 over the last 90 days. 18.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have weighed in on FTNT shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $114.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Raymond James restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on Fortinet from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $112.00 price objective (up from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Fortinet from $97.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have issued a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Fortinet has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $105.69.

Fortinet Stock Down 3.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $96.60 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $74.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.74, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. 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 company has a 50 day simple moving average of $102.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $93.38. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1 year low of $54.57 and a 1 year high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share 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.