Columbus Macro LLC Buys 883 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Columbus Macro LLC lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 29.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,908 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 883 shares during the quarter. Columbus Macro LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $369,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in FTNT. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 276.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,685,230 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $285,790,000 after buying an additional 2,705,767 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Fortinet by 3,155.6% in the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 1,237,244 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $95,948,000 after acquiring an additional 1,199,241 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in Fortinet by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,281,279 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,115,663,000 after acquiring an additional 766,135 shares during the last quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 98.9% during the third quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 1,457,858 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $113,057,000 after acquiring an additional 724,887 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 27.6% in the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 2,584,528 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $200,172,000 after purchasing an additional 558,807 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Fortinet news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 4,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.83, for a total transaction of $386,027.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 4,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $425,901.87. The trade was a 47.54 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $4,576,384,617.36. This trade represents a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 67,860 shares of company stock valued at $6,469,056. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Fortinet stock opened at $102.78 on Wednesday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $54.57 and a 12-month high of $102.87. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $96.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $83.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $78.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.01.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The software maker reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.13. Fortinet had a net margin of 26.79% and a return on equity of 973.30%. The business had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.48 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.35 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on FTNT. Piper Sandler upgraded Fortinet from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $100.00 to $120.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Fortinet from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $112.00 price target (up from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Monday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have issued a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.73.

Fortinet 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.