Sheets Smith Investment Management Buys Shares of 15,820 Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Sheets Smith Investment Management purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 15,820 shares of the software maker's stock, valued at approximately $1,495,000. Fortinet makes up approximately 1.3% of Sheets Smith Investment Management's portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest position.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in FTNT. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 276.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,685,230 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $285,790,000 after purchasing an additional 2,705,767 shares during the period. Amundi grew its stake in Fortinet by 36.7% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 6,577,467 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $631,700,000 after buying an additional 1,766,860 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Fortinet by 136.0% in the 4th quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,919,952 shares of the software maker's stock worth $275,877,000 after acquiring an additional 1,682,708 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in Fortinet by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,281,279 shares of the software maker's stock worth $2,115,663,000 after acquiring an additional 766,135 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at about $69,381,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Trading Up 2.3 %

FTNT stock traded up $2.30 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $102.09. The company had a trading volume of 3,422,575 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,804,244. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $102.65 and a 200-day moving average price of $92.89. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12 month low of $54.57 and a 12 month high of $114.82. 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 has a market cap of $78.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.17, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on FTNT shares. Raymond James reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Scotiabank upped their price target on Fortinet from $115.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective 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. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $135.00 price target (up from $120.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have given 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.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $105.69.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total transaction of $2,150,466.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 49,039,698 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,576,384,617.36. The trade was a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total transaction of $2,668,660.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,736 shares in the company, valued at $537,820.16. The trade was a 83.23 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 599,988 shares of company stock worth $59,094,530 in the last quarter. 18.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Fortinet 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.