NorthRock Partners LLC Acquires 8,031 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

NorthRock Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 293.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 10,768 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,031 shares during the period. NorthRock Partners LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $1,017,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Fortinet by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,115,470 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $6,435,550,000 after purchasing an additional 730,994 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,270,913 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,440,648,000 after acquiring an additional 387,901 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 31.3% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,388,693 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $792,564,000 after acquiring an additional 2,000,888 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $724,048,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in Fortinet by 39.3% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $720,150,000 after purchasing an additional 2,151,811 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Fortinet from $122.00 to $110.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $135.00 target price (up previously from $120.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Fortinet from $110.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Fortinet from $115.00 to $95.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on Fortinet from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $104.80.

Fortinet Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of Fortinet stock opened at $103.23 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $98.27 and a 200 day simple moving average of $97.83. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $54.57 and a 12-month high of $114.82. The company has a market capitalization of $79.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.16. 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 (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The software maker reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. Fortinet had a net margin of 29.30% and a return on equity of 256.53%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.43 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 3,546 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.11, for a total value of $376,266.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 11,000,068 shares in the company, valued at $1,167,217,215.48. This represents a 0.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director William H. Neukom acquired 328 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $106.33 per share, with a total value of $34,876.24. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 300,006 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,899,637.98. This trade represents a 0.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 738,978 shares of company stock valued at $74,135,907. Corporate insiders own 17.20% of the company’s stock.

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.