Marietta Investment Partners LLC Takes Position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Marietta Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 2,270 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $214,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in FTNT. First Hawaiian Bank bought a new position in Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at $670,000. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI boosted its stake in Fortinet by 10.7% during the 4th quarter. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI now owns 89,827 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $8,487,000 after acquiring an additional 8,707 shares during the last quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. boosted its stake in Fortinet by 17.8% during the 4th quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. now owns 23,499 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,220,000 after acquiring an additional 3,544 shares during the last quarter. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its stake in Fortinet by 129.9% during the 4th quarter. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 299,989 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $28,343,000 after acquiring an additional 169,530 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new position in Fortinet during the 3rd quarter valued at $10,343,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on FTNT shares. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Mizuho increased 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. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $112.00 target price (up from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. 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 given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $105.69.

Fortinet Stock Up 0.2 %

FTNT stock opened at $98.65 on Friday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52 week low of $54.57 and a 52 week high of $114.82. The company has a market capitalization of $75.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $102.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $92.31. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67.

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

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of Fortinet 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 $4,576,384,617.36. The trade was a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 17,660 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $109.18, for a total transaction of $1,928,118.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,736 shares in the company, valued at $517,076.48. This represents a 78.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 599,988 shares of company stock valued at $59,094,530 in the last quarter. Insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

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.