Essex LLC Acquires New Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Essex LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 2,575 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $243,000.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of FTNT. FMR LLC lifted its holdings 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 valued at $285,790,000 after buying an additional 2,705,767 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,281,279 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,115,663,000 after purchasing an additional 766,135 shares during the last quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC increased its stake in Fortinet by 98.9% in the 3rd quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 1,457,858 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $113,057,000 after purchasing an additional 724,887 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in Fortinet by 27.6% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 2,584,528 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $200,172,000 after buying an additional 558,807 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director William H. Neukom purchased 355 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 150,245 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,799,132.50. This trade represents a 0.24 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 22,916 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 17th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $4,796,972,076.19. This trade represents a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 67,860 shares of company stock valued at $6,469,056. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on FTNT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $99.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. HSBC upgraded Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $83.00 to $111.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Wedbush raised their price objective on Fortinet from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $103.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $101.43.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $107.66 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $82.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.64, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. Fortinet, Inc. has a twelve month low of $54.57 and a twelve month high of $110.53. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $97.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $84.74.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 463.85% and a net margin of 29.30%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.