Howard Capital Management Inc. Buys 589 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Howard Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 3.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 19,694 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 589 shares during the quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $1,861,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC boosted its position in Fortinet by 276.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,685,230 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $285,790,000 after purchasing an additional 2,705,767 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 3,155.6% during the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 1,237,244 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $95,948,000 after buying an additional 1,199,241 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Fortinet by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,281,279 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,115,663,000 after buying an additional 766,135 shares in the last quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC grew its stake in Fortinet by 98.9% in the 3rd quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 1,457,858 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $113,057,000 after buying an additional 724,887 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AustralianSuper Pty Ltd raised its holdings in Fortinet by 1,084.1% during the 4th quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 657,311 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $62,103,000 after acquiring an additional 601,801 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Fortinet Trading Down 3.7 %

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $110.02 on Monday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $100.12 and a 200 day moving average of $88.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.39. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $54.57 and a 1-year high of $114.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $84.32 billion, a PE ratio of 48.68, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.01.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 17,650 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.66, for a total transaction of $1,688,399.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 4,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $448,549.74. This represents a 79.01 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 22,916 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.93, for a total value of $2,244,163.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,983,683 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,796,972,076.19. This represents a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 87,110 shares of company stock valued at $8,751,689 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $105.00 price target (up from $85.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $77.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Susquehanna raised their price target on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have given a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $103.72.

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.