Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. Acquires 6,917 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 11.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 66,047 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,917 shares during the quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $6,240,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GDS Wealth Management raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 253.5% during the fourth quarter. GDS Wealth Management now owns 20,237 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,912,000 after buying an additional 14,512 shares during the last quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 10,259 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $969,000 after acquiring an additional 145 shares in the last quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $257,000. Chicago Capital LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $308,000. Finally, Willis Investment Counsel boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Willis Investment Counsel now owns 128,891 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $12,178,000 after purchasing an additional 1,804 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on FTNT shares. Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $105.00 target price (up from $85.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Fortinet from $82.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on shares of Fortinet from $88.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Wedbush lifted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eighteen have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.23.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $100.90 on Tuesday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1 year low of $54.57 and a 1 year high of $102.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.25. The firm has a market cap of $77.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.96, a PEG ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $96.57 and a 200-day moving average price of $83.61.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The software maker reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.48 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 26.79% and a return on equity of 973.30%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.35 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total value of $2,150,466.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 49,039,698 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,576,384,617.36. This trade represents a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 4,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.83, for a total transaction of $386,027.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 4,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $425,901.87. This trade represents a 47.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 67,860 shares of company stock valued at $6,469,056 over the last three months. 18.00% 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.