Willis Investment Counsel Purchases 1,804 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Willis Investment Counsel increased its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 128,891 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,804 shares during the quarter. Willis Investment Counsel’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $12,178,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,281,279 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,115,663,000 after purchasing an additional 766,135 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,883,012 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,151,097,000 after purchasing an additional 354,692 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its position in Fortinet by 10.3% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,787,931 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $448,854,000 after buying an additional 542,727 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Fortinet by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,817,859 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $296,075,000 after buying an additional 68,852 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its position in Fortinet by 276.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,685,230 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $285,790,000 after buying an additional 2,705,767 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $88.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $77.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Fortinet has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $96.83.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $100.88 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $77.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12 month low of $54.57 and a 12 month high of $102.87. The business’s 50 day moving average is $96.42 and its two-hundred day moving average is $83.31.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The software maker reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.48 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 973.30% and a net margin of 26.79%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.35 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.95 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 4,250 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.83, for a total transaction of $386,027.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $425,901.87. This trade represents a 47.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 22,916 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.93, for a total value of $2,244,163.88. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,983,683 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,796,972,076.19. This trade represents a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 67,860 shares of company stock valued at $6,469,056 over the last 90 days. 18.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.