Prudential Financial Inc. Grows Position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Prudential Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 104.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 826,136 shares of the software maker's stock after purchasing an additional 421,569 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc. owned approximately 0.11% of Fortinet worth $78,053,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. First Hawaiian Bank bought a new stake in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $670,000. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 10.7% in 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. lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 17.8% during 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. boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 129.9% during 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, Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new stake in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter worth about $10,343,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of FTNT traded down $2.94 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $96.60. 4,499,314 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,970,900. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1 year low of $54.57 and a 1 year high of $114.82. The company has a market cap of $74.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $102.97 and a 200 day moving average price of $93.26.

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Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last announced 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, equities research analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. They set an "overweight" rating and a $123.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded Fortinet from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Baird R W lowered Fortinet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Robert W. Baird reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $112.00 price target (up from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Susquehanna increased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $105.69.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, Director Kenneth A. Goldman sold 2,000 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total transaction of $200,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,612 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,861,200. This trade represents a 9.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the company'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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 49,039,698 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,576,384,617.36. This trade represents a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 599,988 shares of company stock valued at $59,094,530 in the last quarter. Insiders own 18.00% of the company's stock.

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.