Legal & General Group Plc Sells 1,798,519 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Legal & General Group Plc trimmed its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 23.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,800,235 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 1,798,519 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.76% of Fortinet worth $548,006,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of FTNT. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Oarsman Capital Inc. boosted its position in Fortinet by 188.9% during the fourth quarter. Oarsman Capital Inc. now owns 416 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 272 shares during the last quarter. Graney & King LLC acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth about $43,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth about $46,000. Finally, Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at about $56,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Fortinet Stock Performance

FTNT stock traded up $1.41 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $97.73. The company's stock had a trading volume of 5,502,704 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,074,365. The stock has a market cap of $75.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.24, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $101.72 and its 200 day moving average price is $94.72. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1 year low of $54.57 and a 1 year high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a net margin of 29.30% and a return on equity of 256.53%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on FTNT shares. UBS Group set a $123.00 target price on Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Guggenheim reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $103.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Baird R W downgraded shares of Fortinet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Raymond James reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $105.77.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 326,784 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the vice president now owns 11,000,068 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,079,876,675.56. This represents a 2.89 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,736 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $537,820.16. This trade represents a 83.23 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 599,988 shares of company stock worth $59,094,530 over the last three months. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Fortinet

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.