Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Position Increased by Ethic Inc.

Ethic Inc. grew its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 18.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 37,512 shares of the software maker's stock after acquiring an additional 5,731 shares during the quarter. Ethic Inc.'s holdings in Fortinet were worth $3,544,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 5.6% in the fourth quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC now owns 673,412 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $63,624,000 after acquiring an additional 35,470 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG lifted its position in Fortinet by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 4,234,488 shares of the software maker's stock worth $400,074,000 after buying an additional 126,441 shares during the period. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its position in Fortinet by 36.0% during the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 19,866 shares of the software maker's stock worth $1,877,000 after buying an additional 5,264 shares during the period. Colonial Trust Co SC lifted its position in Fortinet by 61.7% during the fourth quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC now owns 1,665 shares of the software maker's stock worth $157,000 after buying an additional 635 shares during the period. Finally, Cornerstone Select Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth about $672,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on FTNT. Baird R W downgraded Fortinet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. UBS Group reduced their target price on Fortinet from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Stephens assumed coverage on Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. They set an "equal weight" rating and a $108.00 target price on the stock. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Fortinet from $122.00 to $110.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Fortinet from $110.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. One research 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $104.80.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total transaction of $2,668,660.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 4,736 shares of the company's stock, valued at $537,820.16. This trade represents a 83.23% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director William H. Neukom bought 328 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $106.33 per share, for a total transaction of $34,876.24. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 300,006 shares in the company, valued at $31,899,637.98. The trade was a 0.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 738,978 shares of company stock valued at $74,135,907 in the last quarter. Insiders own 17.20% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Stock Up 1.5%

NASDAQ FTNT traded up $1.52 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $104.08. 1,625,654 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,949,886. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $54.57 and a 1-year high of $114.82. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $98.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $97.98. 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 company has a market cap of $79.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.03, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.16.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The software maker reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.43 EPS. Fortinet's quarterly revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current 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.