Aspiriant LLC Makes New Investment in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Aspiriant LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 2,406 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $227,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Eagle Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 2.2% during the second quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 25,631 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,545,000 after buying an additional 544 shares during the last quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. grew its stake in Fortinet by 190.4% during the second quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 1,452 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $87,000 after acquiring an additional 952 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its holdings in Fortinet by 6.5% in the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 165,465 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $9,973,000 after acquiring an additional 10,145 shares during the last quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Fortinet by 30.4% in the 2nd quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 5,462 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $329,000 after purchasing an additional 1,274 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 37,340.0% during the 2nd quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 11,232 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $677,000 after purchasing an additional 11,202 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total transaction of $2,150,466.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 49,039,698 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,576,384,617.36. This represents a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director William H. Neukom bought 355 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $98.50 per share, for a total transaction of $34,967.50. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 150,245 shares in the company, valued at $14,799,132.50. The trade was a 0.24 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold 67,860 shares of company stock worth $6,469,056 in the last three months. 18.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on FTNT. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Fortinet from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $88.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $96.33.

Fortinet Stock Up 3.2 %

Shares of Fortinet stock opened at $97.20 on Wednesday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1 year low of $54.57 and a 1 year high of $101.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.25. The stock has a market cap of $74.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.09, a PEG ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 1.00. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $95.58 and its two-hundred day moving average is $81.10.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The software maker reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.48 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 26.79% and a return on equity of 973.30%. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.35 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.95 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.