Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Sells 885,500 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lowered its stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 7.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 11,197,999 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 885,500 shares during the quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned about 1.46% of Fortinet worth $1,057,988,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Manchester Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 13.5% during the 4th quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 843 shares of the software maker's stock worth $80,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Fortinet by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,833 shares of the software maker's stock worth $646,000 after buying an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. Fielder Capital Group LLC increased its holdings in Fortinet by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Fielder Capital Group LLC now owns 6,904 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $652,000 after buying an additional 111 shares during the period. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC now owns 8,346 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $789,000 after buying an additional 114 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 9,390 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $902,000 after buying an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 326,784 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.17, for a total value of $32,080,385.28. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 11,000,068 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,079,876,675.56. This represents a 2.89 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 206,000 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.93, for a total transaction of $19,967,580.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $4,981,414,831.47. This represents a 0.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 576,944 shares of company stock valued at $56,944,064. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of FTNT stock traded up $1.08 on Friday, reaching $101.80. 3,349,355 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,088,439. Fortinet, Inc. has a one year low of $54.57 and a one year high of $114.82. The company has a market cap of $78.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.04, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a 50-day moving average of $99.33 and a 200-day moving average of $95.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.39.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. Analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on FTNT shares. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $97.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted 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. Citigroup raised their price objective on Fortinet from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Guggenheim reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $135.00 target price (up previously from $120.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have issued a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have issued 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 $104.77.

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.