Liberty Capital Management Inc. Boosts Stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Liberty Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 0.4% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 67,854 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 291 shares during the quarter. Fortinet comprises approximately 1.2% of Liberty Capital Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 27th largest position. Liberty Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $5,262,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 664.8% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 35,137,089 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,400,215,000 after purchasing an additional 30,542,551 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet during the first quarter worth about $548,013,000. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 198.5% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 6,238,856 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $376,016,000 after purchasing an additional 4,148,520 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 94.9% during the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,755,599 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $346,890,000 after purchasing an additional 2,802,446 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 102.5% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 3,284,203 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $224,344,000 after purchasing an additional 1,662,156 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,307 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.89, for a total value of $1,908,610.23. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,915,530 shares in the company, valued at $4,005,692,751.70. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction of $1,386,590.32. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 10,847,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,307 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.89, for a total value of $1,908,610.23. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,915,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,005,692,751.70. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 95,250 shares of company stock worth $6,790,149 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on FTNT. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Fortinet from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Fortinet from $68.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Fortinet from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Fortinet from $63.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Fortinet from $74.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-three have assigned a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $72.71.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $82.44 on Wednesday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.12 and a 12-month high of $83.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $62.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $77.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $66.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 1.22.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 2,160.10% and a net margin of 23.71%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.31 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.74 EPS for the current year.

Fortinet Company 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.