Marshall Wace LLP Sells 1,642,351 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Marshall Wace LLP trimmed its position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 59.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,117,385 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 1,642,351 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP owned approximately 0.15% of Fortinet worth $105,571,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. First Hawaiian Bank acquired a new stake in Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at $670,000. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 10.7% in the 4th quarter. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI now owns 89,827 shares of the software maker's stock worth $8,487,000 after acquiring an additional 8,707 shares during the last quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. boosted its stake in Fortinet by 17.8% during the 4th quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. now owns 23,499 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $2,220,000 after purchasing an additional 3,544 shares during the last quarter. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 129.9% in the fourth quarter. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 299,989 shares of the software maker's stock worth $28,343,000 after purchasing an additional 169,530 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Milestone Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,690,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Kenneth A. Goldman sold 2,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total transaction of $200,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,612 shares in the company, valued at $1,861,200. This trade represents a 9.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 326,784 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 576,944 shares of company stock worth $56,944,064. 18.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Fortinet Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT traded up $0.06 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $96.13. 2,979,093 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,085,692. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $54.57 and a 12-month high of $114.82. The firm has a market cap of $73.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.54, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.09. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $100.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $95.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last posted its 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 return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. As a group, analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on FTNT shares. Baird R W lowered shares of Fortinet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $97.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $112.00 target price (up from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Fortinet from $103.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $105.17.

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.