Advisors Capital Management LLC Takes Position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Advisors Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 2,479 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $234,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Oarsman Capital Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 188.9% in the fourth quarter. Oarsman Capital Inc. now owns 416 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 272 shares in the last quarter. Graney & King LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $43,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at $46,000. Finally, Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at $56,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on FTNT. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Fortinet from $103.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $115.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $135.00 price objective (up from $120.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Fortinet from $85.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $105.77.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 206,000 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.93, for a total value of $19,967,580.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 51,391,879 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,981,414,831.47. The trade was a 0.40 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total value of $2,668,660.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $537,820.16. This trade represents a 83.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 576,944 shares of company stock valued at $56,944,064. 18.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $99.20 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.47. Fortinet, Inc. has a one year low of $54.57 and a one year high of $114.82. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $101.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $94.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $76.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.89, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.09.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its earnings results 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, analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

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.