Stephens Investment Management Group LLC Increases Position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Stephens Investment Management Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 7.7% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 142,562 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,143 shares during the quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $13,723,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Eagle Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 26,176 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,473,000 after purchasing an additional 404 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 10,327 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $976,000 after purchasing an additional 221 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 95.3% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 5,793 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $547,000 after purchasing an additional 2,827 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 30.4% in the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 15,714 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,485,000 after purchasing an additional 3,659 shares during the period. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 243.0% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,480 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $234,000 after purchasing an additional 1,757 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FTNT has been the subject of a number of research reports. DZ Bank upgraded Fortinet from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their target price on Fortinet from $115.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Roth Capital set a $103.00 target price on Fortinet and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Fortinet from $115.00 to $95.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on Fortinet from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $105.62.

Fortinet Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of Fortinet stock opened at $99.06 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $75.82 billion, a PE ratio of 40.77, a P/E/G ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a current ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. Fortinet, Inc. has a twelve month low of $54.57 and a twelve month high of $114.82. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $103.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $101.02.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The software maker reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.54 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 148.79%. Fortinet’s quarterly revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.43 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,488 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.10, for a total transaction of $16,815,576.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $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 is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 3,546 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.11, for a total transaction of $376,266.06. Following the sale, the vice president owned 11,000,068 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,167,217,215.48. This represents a 0.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 18.00% 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.