Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Shares Bought by Nomura Holdings Inc.

Nomura Holdings Inc. increased its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 91.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 94,681 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 45,296 shares during the quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $8,945,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of FTNT. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth about $724,048,000. Schroder Investment Management Group acquired a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth about $389,867,000. FMR LLC raised its holdings 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 during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in Fortinet by 39.3% in 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 period. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. raised its holdings in Fortinet by 72.6% in the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 4,906,439 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $463,561,000 after purchasing an additional 2,064,016 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 206,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.93, for a total transaction of $19,967,580.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 51,391,879 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,981,414,831.47. This trade represents a 0.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 17,660 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $109.18, for a total value of $1,928,118.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,736 shares in the company, valued at approximately $517,076.48. This represents a 78.85% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 738,978 shares of company stock valued at $74,135,907. 17.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on FTNT. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on Fortinet from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Fortinet from $123.00 to $105.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Fortinet from $114.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com cut Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $104.80.

Fortinet Stock Down 1.7%

Fortinet stock opened at $103.23 on Thursday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $54.57 and a 1-year high of $114.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The stock has a market cap of $79.01 billion, a PE ratio of 45.68, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.16. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $98.27 and its two-hundred day moving average is $97.83.

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

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.