Ascent Group LLC Invests $353,000 in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Key Points

• Ascent Group LLC invested approximately $353,000 in Fortinet, Inc. by acquiring 3,667 shares during the first quarter.
• Fortinet's recent quarterly earnings reported $0.64 earnings per share, surpassing analysts' expectations of $0.59 and showing a 13.6% increase in revenue compared to last year.
• Insider selling activity was noted with CEO Ken Xie selling 158,486 shares at an average price of $98.48, resulting in a decrease of 0.31% in his position in the company.

Ascent Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 3,667 shares of the software maker's stock, valued at approximately $353,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of FTNT. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in Fortinet by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 10,327 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $976,000 after purchasing an additional 221 shares in the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $585,000. Focus Partners Wealth grew its stake in Fortinet by 34.5% during the 4th quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 41,696 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $3,939,000 after purchasing an additional 10,692 shares in the last quarter. OCONNOR A Distinct Business Unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $240,000. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Fortinet by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 1,578,820 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $149,167,000 after purchasing an additional 31,540 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of Fortinet stock traded down $1.21 during trading on Friday, hitting $79.68. The stock had a trading volume of 4,424,982 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,074,259. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 1.24. The firm has a market cap of $61.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.75, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.13. The business has a fifty day moving average of $89.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of $96.78. Fortinet, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $70.12 and a fifty-two week high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.05. Fortinet had a return on equity of 111.46% and a net margin of 30.60%.The business had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.57 earnings per share. Fortinet's revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side 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 brokerages have weighed in on FTNT. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Fortinet from $110.00 to $85.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "neutral" rating and set a $85.00 price objective (down previously from $125.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Wedbush decreased their target price on Fortinet from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Fortinet from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Fortinet from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortinet presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $97.03.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total value of $15,607,701.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,391,879 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,061,072,243.92. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total value of $46,935,174.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 9,730,560 shares in the company, valued at approximately $958,265,548.80. The trade was a 4.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.