Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT Stock: Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Raises Stake

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund raised its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 15.7% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 67,202 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,125 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $12,013,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Puff Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Puff Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,660 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $297,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the period. Columbus Macro LLC increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Columbus Macro LLC now owns 2,981 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $533,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 19,581 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $3,500,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC now owns 3,525 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $630,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kintegral Advisory LLC lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Kintegral Advisory LLC now owns 12,648 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,261,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $128.10 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. Fortinet, Inc. has a twelve month low of $73.55 and a twelve month high of $197.13. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $165.56 and its 200-day moving average is $130.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $94.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.59, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.04.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The software maker reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.05. Fortinet had a return on equity of 152.72% and a net margin of 28.96%. The company had revenue of $2.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.06 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.74 EPS. Fortinet’s quarterly revenue was up 20.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 3.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, COO John Whittle sold 53,865 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.44, for a total transaction of $8,911,425.60. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 96,987 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,045,529.28. This represents a 35.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 3,121 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.49, for a total transaction of $404,138.29. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 9,918,360 shares in the company, valued at $1,284,328,436.40. This trade represents a 0.03% 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. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 221,304 shares of company stock worth $30,675,309. Insiders own 17.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Fortinet from $210.00 to $155.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 29th. Bank of America downgraded shares of Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $140.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Thursday, October 29th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated 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. Finally, Evercore set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty-four have issued a Hold rating and six have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $150.44.

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.