Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Has $7.29 Million Stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System trimmed its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 2.7% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 94,000 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 2,600 shares during the quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $7,290,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of FTNT. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,052,487 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $4,648,665,000 after purchasing an additional 779,271 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of 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 worth $2,400,215,000 after buying an additional 30,542,551 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 1.7% in the second quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,156,797 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $491,610,000 after acquiring an additional 134,366 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 198.5% in the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in Fortinet by 94.9% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,755,599 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $346,890,000 after acquiring an additional 2,802,446 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have issued reports on FTNT shares. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $78.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $66.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Mizuho cut shares of Fortinet from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $68.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-two have assigned a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $73.25.

Fortinet Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $80.34 on Friday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.12 and a 12-month high of $83.77. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $77.64 and a 200-day moving average of $67.06. The company has a market capitalization of $61.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 1.00.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 2,160.10% and a net margin of 23.71%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.31 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

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

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.