Candriam S.C.A. Acquires 12,158 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Candriam S.C.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 26.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 58,254 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,158 shares during the period. Candriam S.C.A.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $5,504,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Manchester Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Fortinet by 13.5% during the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 843 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $80,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Fortinet by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,833 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $646,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Fielder Capital Group LLC lifted its stake in Fortinet by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Fielder Capital Group LLC now owns 6,904 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $652,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Fortinet by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC now owns 8,346 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $789,000 after purchasing an additional 114 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in Fortinet by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,106 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $104,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of Fortinet stock opened at $101.28 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $102.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $90.93. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $54.57 and a 1-year high of $114.82. The company has a market cap of $77.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.81, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued 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 return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on FTNT shares. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Fortinet from $97.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Susquehanna increased their price target on Fortinet from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on Fortinet from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. KeyCorp upgraded Fortinet from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $115.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Fortinet from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $103.72.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total value of $2,668,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,736 shares in the company, valued at $537,820.16. This trade represents a 83.23 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director William H. Neukom bought 328 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $106.33 per share, with a total value of $34,876.24. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 300,006 shares in the company, valued at $31,899,637.98. This trade represents a 0.11 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 87,120 shares of company stock worth $8,991,409. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

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.