J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. grew its position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 6.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,830 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 625 shares during the quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $1,023,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp grew its position in Fortinet by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,281,279 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,115,663,000 after purchasing an additional 766,135 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 2.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,883,012 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,151,097,000 after buying an additional 354,692 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 10.3% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,787,931 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $448,854,000 after buying an additional 542,727 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Fortinet by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,817,859 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $296,075,000 after acquiring an additional 68,852 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC raised its stake in Fortinet by 276.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,685,230 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $285,790,000 after acquiring an additional 2,705,767 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director William H. Neukom bought 355 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $98.50 per share, for a total transaction of $34,967.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 150,245 shares in the company, valued at $14,799,132.50. The trade was a 0.24 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 17,650 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.66, for a total transaction of $1,688,399.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $448,549.74. The trade was a 79.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 63,610 shares of company stock valued at $6,083,029 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have weighed in on FTNT shares. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $114.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortinet has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $103.72.

Fortinet Price Performance

FTNT stock opened at $114.26 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $99.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $87.56. The firm has a market cap of $87.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.56, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.34. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1 year low of $54.57 and a 1 year high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 463.85% and a net margin of 29.30%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.