Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV Buys New Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 39,224 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $3,706,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. First Hawaiian Bank acquired a new position in Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth about $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 buying an additional 8,707 shares in the last quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 17.8% during the 4th quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. now owns 23,499 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,220,000 after buying an additional 3,544 shares during the period. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its stake 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 valued at $28,343,000 after buying an additional 169,530 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Milestone Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at $1,690,000. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,488 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.10, for a total value of $16,815,576.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 51,391,879 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,452,678,361.90. This trade represents a 0.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director William H. Neukom purchased 328 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $106.33 per share, with a total value of $34,876.24. Following the transaction, the director now owns 300,006 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,899,637.98. The trade was a 0.11 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 738,978 shares of company stock worth $74,135,907 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FTNT has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Fortinet from $114.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Roth Capital set a $103.00 price target on shares of Fortinet and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. StockNews.com cut shares of Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $112.00 target price (up previously from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $106.03.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of Fortinet stock opened at $108.69 on Tuesday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12 month low of $54.57 and a 12 month high of $114.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The company has a market capitalization of $83.12 billion, a PE ratio of 48.09, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.16. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $98.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $97.01.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. On average, research analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

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.