Blue Trust Inc. Grows Position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 22.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 17,286 shares of the software maker's stock after purchasing an additional 3,163 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.'s holdings in Fortinet were worth $1,633,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Eastern Bank purchased a new position in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet during the third quarter valued at $26,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 73.3% in the third quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 409 shares of the software maker's stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the period. City State Bank boosted its stake in Fortinet by 900.0% in the 3rd quarter. City State Bank now owns 500 shares of the software maker's stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares during the period. Finally, Paladin Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $46,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Stock Up 3.2 %

Shares of Fortinet stock traded up $3.06 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $99.83. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,378,586 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,130,274. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $54.57 and a 1-year high of $101.00. The company has a market cap of $76.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $95.80 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $82.16.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The software maker reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.13. Fortinet had a net margin of 26.79% and a return on equity of 973.30%. The firm had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.48 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.35 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on FTNT. Mizuho upped their price objective on Fortinet from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an "underperform" rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Raymond James reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $88.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Piper Sandler upgraded Fortinet from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $100.00 to $120.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Fortinet from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $96.83.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total transaction of $2,150,466.08. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 17,650 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 4,689 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $448,549.74. This trade represents a 79.01 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 67,860 shares of company stock worth $6,469,056 over the last 90 days. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.