Motley Fool Asset Management LLC Has $1.79 Million Stock Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Motley Fool Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 12.9% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 26,171 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 2,982 shares during the quarter. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $1,788,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Fortinet by 664.8% in the 1st 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 acquiring an additional 30,542,551 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at $203,501,000. Sarasin & Partners LLP acquired a new position in Fortinet in the 1st quarter valued at $120,746,000. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its holdings in Fortinet by 102.5% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 3,284,203 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $224,344,000 after acquiring an additional 1,662,156 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parnassus Investments LLC raised its holdings in Fortinet by 223.6% in the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 1,366,467 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $79,979,000 after acquiring an additional 944,161 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of FTNT stock traded up $0.54 on Wednesday, hitting $58.04. The company had a trading volume of 4,675,402 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,737,237. The firm has a market cap of $44.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.98. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $59.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $63.75. Fortinet, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.12 and a twelve month high of $78.58.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.34 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 2,235.48% and a net margin of 22.23%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.29 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.47 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,267 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.01, for a total transaction of $1,456,262.67. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,777,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,927,125,412.94. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,267 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.01, for a total transaction of $1,456,262.67. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,777,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,927,125,412.94. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director William H. Neukom bought 586 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 6th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $59.55 per share, with a total value of $34,896.30. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 295,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,613,579.90. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold 91,913 shares of company stock valued at $5,608,349 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FTNT has been the subject of several analyst reports. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $78.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a report on Wednesday, May 22nd. HSBC lowered their price target on Fortinet from $57.00 to $54.00 and set a “reduce” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Fortinet from $70.00 to $62.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price target on Fortinet from $68.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $70.00.

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.