EP Wealth Advisors LLC Cuts Stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

EP Wealth Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 15.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,816 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 2,938 shares during the period. EP Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $1,494,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth about $724,048,000. Schroder Investment Management Group purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $389,867,000. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Fortinet by 77.2% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,531,705 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $617,115,000 after purchasing an additional 2,846,475 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in Fortinet by 39.3% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $720,150,000 after purchasing an additional 2,151,811 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. increased its stake in Fortinet by 72.6% during the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 4,906,439 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $463,561,000 after purchasing an additional 2,064,016 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total transaction of $2,668,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,736 shares in the company, valued at approximately $537,820.16. This trade represents a 83.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director William H. Neukom bought 328 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $106.33 per share, for a total transaction of $34,876.24. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 300,006 shares in the company, valued at $31,899,637.98. The trade was a 0.11 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold 738,978 shares of company stock valued at $74,135,907 in the last three months. 17.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Fortinet Stock Performance

FTNT opened at $97.42 on Friday. Fortinet, Inc. has a twelve month low of $54.57 and a twelve month high of $114.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $74.50 billion, a PE ratio of 43.11, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.16. 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’s 50-day moving average price is $98.26 and its 200 day moving average price is $97.36.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The software maker reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.43 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. DZ Bank lowered shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $95.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Fortinet from $115.00 to $95.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Fortinet from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Citigroup upped their target price on Fortinet from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have given a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $104.80.

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.