Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Shares Sold by EP Wealth Advisors LLC

EP Wealth Advisors LLC lessened its stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 15.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 15,816 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 2,938 shares during the quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings in Fortinet were worth $1,494,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth about $724,048,000. Schroder Investment Management Group bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at about $389,867,000. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 77.2% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,531,705 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $617,115,000 after purchasing an additional 2,846,475 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 39.3% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $720,150,000 after acquiring an additional 2,151,811 shares during the period. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 72.6% during the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 4,906,439 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $463,561,000 after purchasing an additional 2,064,016 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director William H. Neukom acquired 328 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $106.33 per share, with a total value of $34,876.24. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 300,006 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $31,899,637.98. This trade represents a 0.11% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 326,784 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.17, for a total value of $32,080,385.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 11,000,068 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,079,876,675.56. This represents a 2.89% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 738,978 shares of company stock valued at $74,135,907. 17.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FTNT has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Fortinet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Citigroup raised their price target on Fortinet from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. DZ Bank upgraded Fortinet from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Fortinet from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $104.80.

Fortinet Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT traded down $0.38 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $102.85. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,904,492 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,946,598. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $98.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $97.83. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $78.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.16.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The software maker reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.05. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.43 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

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.