Mizuho Securities USA LLC Acquires 19,125 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 46.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 60,293 shares of the software maker's stock after buying an additional 19,125 shares during the quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC's holdings in Fortinet were worth $5,696,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in FTNT. First Hawaiian Bank acquired a new stake in Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at about $670,000. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 10.7% during the fourth quarter. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI now owns 89,827 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $8,487,000 after purchasing an additional 8,707 shares during the last quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 17.8% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. raised its position in Fortinet by 129.9% in the 4th 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, Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new position in Fortinet during the 3rd quarter worth $10,343,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Fortinet from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Baird R W lowered Fortinet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $103.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Guggenheim reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. One research 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortinet has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $105.69.

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Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total value of $2,150,466.08. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 49,039,698 shares in the company, valued at $4,576,384,617.36. This trade represents a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, 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 trade represents a 2.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 599,988 shares of company stock worth $59,094,530 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of FTNT traded up $2.28 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $102.07. The company had a trading volume of 2,307,046 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,798,211. The business has a fifty day moving average of $102.46 and a 200-day moving average of $92.70. 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 firm has a market cap of $78.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.16, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12 month low of $54.57 and a 12 month high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, beating 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%. Equities analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.