Plato Investment Management Ltd Grows Stock Position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Plato Investment Management Ltd raised its position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 39.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,974 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,960 shares during the period. Plato Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $1,325,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $477,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 26.9% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 371,067 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $35,058,000 after buying an additional 78,723 shares during the last quarter. Modera Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Modera Wealth Management LLC now owns 101,618 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $9,601,000 after buying an additional 4,160 shares during the last quarter. Norden Group LLC bought a new position in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $4,216,000. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Fortinet by 35.1% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 3,907 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $372,000 after purchasing an additional 1,014 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortinet Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of FTNT opened at $106.54 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $81.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.14, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $101.51 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $90.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.39. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1 year low of $54.57 and a 1 year high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. On average, analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on FTNT shares. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Fortinet from $97.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Fortinet from $70.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on Fortinet from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $112.00 price target (up from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Monday, February 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have given a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $103.72.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total transaction of $2,668,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 4,736 shares in the company, valued at $537,820.16. This represents a 83.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 49,039,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,576,384,617.36. This represents a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 87,120 shares of company stock valued at $8,991,409. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.