Ritholtz Wealth Management Buys 1,885 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Ritholtz Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 38.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,794 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,885 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $654,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 18,353.2% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 547,323 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $547,000 after purchasing an additional 544,357 shares during the period. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its stake in Fortinet by 14.9% in the fourth quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 124,501 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $11,763,000 after buying an additional 16,139 shares during the period. West Family Investments Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $234,000. Colonial Trust Co SC boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 61.7% during the 4th quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC now owns 1,665 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $157,000 after acquiring an additional 635 shares during the period. Finally, Cache Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $688,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on FTNT shares. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $122.00 to $110.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $95.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Roth Capital set a $103.00 price target on shares of Fortinet and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, KeyCorp cut their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. One 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 given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $104.80.

Fortinet Price Performance

Fortinet stock opened at $100.82 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $101.73 and a 200-day moving average of $100.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $77.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.36. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52 week low of $54.57 and a 52 week high of $114.82.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,488 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.10, for a total value of $16,815,576.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 51,391,879 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,452,678,361.90. The trade was a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director William H. Neukom acquired 335 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 6th. The stock was bought at an average price of $104.22 per share, with a total value of $34,913.70. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 301,471 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,419,307.62. This trade represents a 0.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 17.20% of the company’s stock.

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.