Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Position Increased by First Foundation Advisors

Key Points

• First Foundation Advisors increased its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. by 6.5% during the first quarter, now owning 80,976 shares valued at approximately $7.8 million.
• Significant institutional investments in Fortinet include FMR LLC increasing its stake by 77.2% and Bessemer Group Inc. raising its holdings by 72.6% in the fourth quarter.
• Fortinet reported $0.58 earnings per share for its latest quarter, exceeding expectations, with revenue increasing by 13.8% compared to the previous year.

First Foundation Advisors boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 6.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 80,976 shares of the software maker's stock after buying an additional 4,935 shares during the period. First Foundation Advisors' holdings in Fortinet were worth $7,795,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of FTNT. FMR LLC boosted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 2,846,475 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 72.6% in the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 4,906,439 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $463,561,000 after buying an additional 2,064,016 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 31.3% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,388,693 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $792,564,000 after acquiring an additional 2,000,888 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Fortinet by 11,349.3% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,927,607 shares of the software maker's stock worth $185,551,000 after purchasing an additional 1,910,771 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 17.2% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,470,320 shares of the software maker's stock worth $611,316,000 after buying an additional 951,233 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Price Performance

NASDAQ:FTNT traded down $3.06 on Wednesday, reaching $101.71. 5,323,969 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,550,488. The firm has a market cap of $77.85 billion, a PE ratio of 41.86, a P/E/G ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 1.06. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12 month low of $54.57 and a 12 month high of $114.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $103.46 and a 200-day simple moving average of $101.74.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The software maker reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.54 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 148.79%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.43 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,488 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.10, for a total value of $16,815,576.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,391,879 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,452,678,361.90. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director William H. Neukom acquired 335 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, June 6th. The stock was bought at an average price of $104.22 per share, with a total value of $34,913.70. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 301,471 shares of the company's stock, valued at $31,419,307.62. This represents a 0.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 17.20% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays set a $110.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, July 14th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Fortinet from $122.00 to $110.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $135.00 to $115.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Fortinet from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, July 12th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $107.00.

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.