iA Global Asset Management Inc. Boosts Stock Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

iA Global Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 32.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 114,776 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 28,422 shares during the period. iA Global Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $10,844,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. First Hawaiian Bank purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth about $670,000. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 10.7% in the 4th quarter. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI now owns 89,827 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $8,487,000 after buying an additional 8,707 shares during the last quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 17.8% in the 4th quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. now owns 23,499 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,220,000 after buying an additional 3,544 shares during the last quarter. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 129.9% in the 4th quarter. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 299,989 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $28,343,000 after buying an additional 169,530 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 3rd quarter worth about $10,343,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group boosted 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Fortinet from $99.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on Fortinet from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price objective on Fortinet from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Fortinet from $114.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $105.69.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total transaction of $2,150,466.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 49,039,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,576,384,617.36. This represents a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total value of $2,668,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $537,820.16. This trade represents a 83.23 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 599,988 shares of company stock valued at $59,094,530 over the last quarter. 18.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Fortinet Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of FTNT opened at $98.17 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $75.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.44, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $102.21 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $92.12. 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.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. On average, analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.