Clarius Group LLC Grows Position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Clarius Group LLC grew its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 24.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,244 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 824 shares during the period. Clarius Group LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $409,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 18,353.2% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 547,323 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $547,000 after acquiring an additional 544,357 shares in the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 14.9% in the fourth quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 124,501 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $11,763,000 after acquiring an additional 16,139 shares in the last quarter. West Family Investments Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at about $234,000. Colonial Trust Co SC lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 61.7% in the fourth quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC now owns 1,665 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $157,000 after acquiring an additional 635 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cache Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at about $688,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortinet Stock Down 2.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $100.82 on Thursday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1 year low of $54.57 and a 1 year high of $114.82. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $101.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $100.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $77.17 billion, a PE ratio of 41.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 1.29.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The software maker reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. Fortinet had a return on equity of 148.79% and a net margin of 30.60%. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.43 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on FTNT. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Fortinet from $115.00 to $95.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their target price on Fortinet from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 8th. KeyCorp reduced their target price on Fortinet from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Roth Capital set a $103.00 target price on Fortinet and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Fortinet from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $104.80.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,488 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.10, for a total value of $16,815,576.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,452,678,361.90. The trade was a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director William H. Neukom purchased 335 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 6th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $104.22 per share, with a total value of $34,913.70. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 301,471 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,419,307.62. This trade represents a 0.11% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 17.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.