Norges Bank Takes $724.05 Million Position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Norges Bank acquired a new position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 7,663,508 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $724,048,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of FTNT. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,115,470 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $6,435,550,000 after purchasing an additional 730,994 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,281,279 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,115,663,000 after buying an additional 766,135 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Fortinet by 2.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,883,012 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,151,097,000 after buying an additional 354,692 shares during the period. Amundi increased its holdings in Fortinet by 36.7% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 6,577,467 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $631,700,000 after buying an additional 1,766,860 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in Fortinet by 10.3% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,787,931 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $448,854,000 after acquiring an additional 542,727 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $99.54 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $102.92 and its 200-day moving average price is $92.99. 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 current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $76.54 billion, a PE ratio of 44.04, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Fortinet from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $112.00 target price (up previously from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Susquehanna boosted their price target on Fortinet from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $103.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $105.69.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In related news, Director William H. Neukom bought 328 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $106.33 per share, for a total transaction of $34,876.24. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 300,006 shares in the company, valued at $31,899,637.98. This represents a 0.11 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total value of $2,150,466.08. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 49,039,698 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,576,384,617.36. This represents a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 599,988 shares of company stock valued at $59,094,530. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Fortinet Company 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.