LPL Financial LLC Purchases 58,924 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

LPL Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 26.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 281,070 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 58,924 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $26,555,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Fox Run Management L.L.C. raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 18.3% during the 4th quarter. Fox Run Management L.L.C. now owns 3,369 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $318,000 after acquiring an additional 521 shares in the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new position in Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at $22,959,000. Marietta Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at $214,000. Sei Investments Co. boosted its position in Fortinet by 157.3% in the 4th quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 474,458 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $44,827,000 after buying an additional 290,089 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in Fortinet by 17.1% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 701,206 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $66,250,000 after purchasing an additional 102,434 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total value of $2,668,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $537,820.16. The trade was a 83.23 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 326,784 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.17, for a total transaction of $32,080,385.28. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 11,000,068 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,079,876,675.56. The trade was a 2.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 599,988 shares of company stock worth $59,094,530 over the last three months. Insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of Fortinet stock opened at $96.60 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $102.97 and its 200 day moving average price is $93.26. 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 company has a market cap of $74.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.74, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. Fortinet, Inc. has a one year low of $54.57 and a one year high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. On average, research analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on FTNT. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Baird R W lowered Fortinet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Fortinet from $114.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Fortinet from $85.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have issued a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortinet presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $105.69.

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.