Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT Stock: Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Boosts Holdings

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 9.8% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 105,409 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 9,372 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $18,843,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Collaborative Fund Advisors LLC grew its position in Fortinet by 31.1% during the third quarter. Collaborative Fund Advisors LLC now owns 2,277 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $407,000 after buying an additional 540 shares during the period. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC boosted its position in Fortinet by 11.1% during the third quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 23,293 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $4,193,000 after acquiring an additional 2,322 shares during the last quarter. Ascent Group LLC lifted its position in Fortinet by 9.8% during the third quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 4,420 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $790,000 after buying an additional 393 shares in the last quarter. 3Chopt Investment Partners LLC grew its position in Fortinet by 13.1% in the third quarter. 3Chopt Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,555 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $278,000 after acquiring an additional 180 shares during the period. Finally, Compass Financial Management LLC increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 312.0% during the third quarter. Compass Financial Management LLC now owns 12,717 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,273,000 after acquiring an additional 9,630 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortinet Price Performance

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $123.57 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $166.24 and its two-hundred day moving average is $129.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $90.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.40. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1 year low of $73.55 and a 1 year high of $197.13.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The software maker reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $2.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.06 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 152.72% and a net margin of 28.96%. Fortinet’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.74 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 3.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently issued reports on FTNT shares. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Fortinet from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 3rd. Scotiabank lowered their target price on Fortinet from $163.00 to $140.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley reiterated a “positive” rating and set a $136.00 target price (up from $133.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Robert W. Baird set a $165.00 price target on shares of Fortinet and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research set a $175.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty-four have assigned a Hold rating and six have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $150.44.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,483 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.31, for a total transaction of $20,881,366.73. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 52,972,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,849,857,423.32. The trade was a 0.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, COO John Whittle sold 53,865 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.44, for a total transaction of $8,911,425.60. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 96,987 shares in the company, valued at $16,045,529.28. The trade was a 35.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 221,304 shares of company stock worth $30,675,309. 17.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Fortinet Profile

Fortinet, Inc. is a cybersecurity and networking company that provides products and services to help organizations protect their networks, devices, applications, and cloud environments. Its offerings include FortiGate next-generation firewalls, the FortiOS operating system, and security, endpoint, cloud, and secure access service edge (SASE) solutions. The company’s Security Fabric platform is designed to integrate security and networking products and support centralized visibility and management.