Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 48.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 41,728 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 13,669 shares during the quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $3,942,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $102.04 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $78.03 billion, a PE ratio of 45.15, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.16. Fortinet, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $54.57 and a fifty-two week high of $114.82. The company has a fifty day moving average of $98.17 and a two-hundred day moving average of $97.74.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly 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. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.54 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 29.30% and a return on equity of 256.53%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.43 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on FTNT. StockNews.com downgraded Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Stephens assumed coverage on Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $108.00 target price on the stock. KeyCorp reduced their price target on shares of Fortinet from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $114.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have given a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $104.80.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 206,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.93, for a total value of $19,967,580.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $4,981,414,831.47. This represents a 0.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 3,546 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.11, for a total transaction of $376,266.06. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 11,000,068 shares in the company, valued at $1,167,217,215.48. The trade was a 0.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 738,978 shares of company stock valued at $74,135,907 over the last quarter. 17.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Fortinet 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.