Investment Partners Asset Management Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Investment Partners Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 8.4% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,319 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 335 shares during the period. Investment Partners Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $335,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 1.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,052,487 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,648,665,000 after buying an additional 779,271 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in Fortinet by 664.8% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 35,137,089 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,400,215,000 after buying an additional 30,542,551 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 1.7% during the second quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,156,797 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $491,610,000 after purchasing an additional 134,366 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 198.5% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 6,238,856 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $376,016,000 after acquiring an additional 4,148,520 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 94.9% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,755,599 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $346,890,000 after purchasing an additional 2,802,446 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,307 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.89, for a total transaction of $1,908,610.23. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,915,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,005,692,751.70. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,307 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.89, for a total value of $1,908,610.23. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,915,530 shares in the company, valued at $4,005,692,751.70. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total value of $1,386,590.32. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,847,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 95,250 shares of company stock valued at $6,790,149 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Fortinet from $70.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Susquehanna upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-two have issued a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $73.25.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT traded up $0.99 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $81.33. 501,516 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,453,953. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $77.64 and a two-hundred day moving average of $67.04. Fortinet, Inc. has a one year low of $44.12 and a one year high of $83.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $62.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.54, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.00.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.16. Fortinet had a net margin of 23.71% and a negative return on equity of 2,160.10%. The company had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.40 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.31 EPS. Fortinet’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.74 EPS 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.