Smith Moore & CO. Acquires New Position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Smith Moore & CO. bought a new position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 2,486 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $235,000.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Fortinet by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,115,470 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $6,435,550,000 after acquiring an additional 730,994 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,270,913 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,440,648,000 after purchasing an additional 387,901 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at about $724,048,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 39.3% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $720,150,000 after purchasing an additional 2,151,811 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 36.7% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 6,577,467 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $631,700,000 after buying an additional 1,766,860 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortinet Stock Down 5.3 %

FTNT opened at $84.71 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $102.59 and a 200 day moving average price of $94.00. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1 year low of $54.57 and a 1 year high of $114.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.47. The company has a market cap of $65.14 billion, a PE ratio of 37.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.09.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. Sell-side analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In related news, Director Kenneth A. Goldman sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total value of $200,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 18,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,861,200. This represents a 9.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total transaction 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 represents a 83.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 599,988 shares of company stock valued at $59,094,530. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on FTNT. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $135.00 target price (up from $120.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Baird R W lowered Fortinet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $114.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their target price on Fortinet from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $105.77.

About Fortinet

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.