Norges Bank Takes Position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Norges Bank purchased a new position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 7,663,508 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $724,048,000. Norges Bank owned 1.00% of Fortinet as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of FTNT. Graney & King LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $46,000. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at $56,000. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 445.5% during the 4th quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 600 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $57,000 after buying an additional 490 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Private Trust Co. NA lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 95.0% during the 4th quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 630 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $60,000 after buying an additional 307 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Fortinet stock opened at $99.54 on Friday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $54.57 and a 1-year high of $114.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $76.54 billion, a PE ratio of 44.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $102.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $92.99.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FTNT has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Mizuho boosted their target price on Fortinet from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on Fortinet from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Fortinet from $103.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $105.69.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In related news, Director William H. Neukom purchased 328 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were bought at an average price of $106.33 per share, for a total transaction of $34,876.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 300,006 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,899,637.98. This represents a 0.11 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total value of $2,668,660.00. Following the sale, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 599,988 shares of company stock worth $59,094,530 in the last three months. 18.00% of the stock is owned by 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.