Russell Investments Group Ltd. Acquires 165,225 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 10.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,744,845 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 165,225 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $310,950,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of FTNT. Birinyi Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 3rd quarter worth $4,338,000. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the second quarter worth $492,000. Wealth Enhancement Trust Services Inc. raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 83.8% during the third quarter. Wealth Enhancement Trust Services Inc. now owns 22,326 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,991,000 after purchasing an additional 10,180 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 35.5% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 32,402 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $5,792,000 after purchasing an additional 8,488 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Perpetual Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2,214.9% during the third quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 167,738 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $29,985,000 after purchasing an additional 160,492 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on FTNT shares. Scotiabank decreased their price target on Fortinet from $163.00 to $140.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. Piper Sandler set a $140.00 price target on Fortinet and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and set a $145.00 price objective (down from $185.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Monday, October 26th. Daiwa Securities Group raised shares of Fortinet from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $150.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 4th. Finally, William Blair reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty-four have given a Hold rating and six have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortinet has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $150.44.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,483 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.31, for a total transaction of $20,881,366.73. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 52,972,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,849,857,423.32. The trade was a 0.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, COO John Whittle sold 53,865 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.44, for a total value of $8,911,425.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 96,987 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,045,529.28. This represents a 35.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 221,304 shares of company stock worth $30,675,309. 17.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Fortinet Trading Up 1.1%

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $129.54 on Friday. Fortinet, Inc. has a twelve month low of $73.55 and a twelve month high of $197.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.40. The stock has a market cap of $95.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.06, a PEG ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.04. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $165.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $130.42.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The software maker reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $2.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.06 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 152.72% and a net margin of 28.96%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.74 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 3.21 EPS for the current year.

Fortinet Company Profile

Fortinet, Inc. is a cybersecurity and networking company that provides products and services to help organizations protect their networks, devices, applications, and cloud environments. Its offerings include FortiGate next-generation firewalls, the FortiOS operating system, and security, endpoint, cloud, and secure access service edge (SASE) solutions. The company’s Security Fabric platform is designed to integrate security and networking products and support centralized visibility and management.