Axiom Investors LLC DE Takes $578,000 Position in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Key Points

• Axiom Investors LLC DE has acquired 6,004 shares of Fortinet, Inc., valued at approximately $578,000, marking a new position in the cybersecurity firm.
• Various institutional investors have increased their stakes in Fortinet, with Vanguard Group Inc. now owning over $6.89 billion worth of shares after a 5.2% increase.
• Fortinet's latest quarterly earnings showed a 13.6% year-over-year revenue increase to $1.63 billion, with earnings per share of $0.64, exceeding analyst estimates.

Axiom Investors LLC DE purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 6,004 shares of the software maker's stock, valued at approximately $578,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 71,662,404 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $6,898,223,000 after purchasing an additional 3,546,934 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 11,349.3% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,927,607 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $185,551,000 after purchasing an additional 1,910,771 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at about $153,576,000. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 17.2% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,470,320 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $611,316,000 after acquiring an additional 951,233 shares during the period. Finally, AustralianSuper Pty Ltd grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 127.6% during the 1st quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 1,496,339 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $144,038,000 after acquiring an additional 839,028 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on FTNT. Citigroup restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $85.00 price target (down from $110.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Monday, August 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Fortinet from $105.00 to $87.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Fortinet in a research note on Monday, May 12th. They issued a "peer perform" rating for the company. Cowen downgraded Fortinet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Fortinet from $110.00 to $113.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $97.40.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $80.02 on Monday. The stock's fifty day moving average is $96.98 and its 200 day moving average is $100.09. Fortinet, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $70.12 and a fifty-two week high of $114.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $61.32 billion, a PE ratio of 31.88, a PEG ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.33.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.57 EPS. Fortinet's quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, Director William H. Neukom bought 335 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Friday, June 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $104.22 per share, for a total transaction of $34,913.70. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 301,471 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,419,307.62. 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 476,596 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the vice president owned 9,730,560 shares in the company, valued at approximately $958,265,548.80. The trade was a 4.67% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 18.00% of the company's stock.

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.

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