Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT Stock: Russell Investments Group Ltd. Raises Stake

Key Points

• Russell Investments increased its Fortinet stake by 10.5% in the third quarter, adding 165,225 shares to hold about 1.74 million shares worth approximately $311 million. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the stock.
• Fortinet reported quarterly earnings of $0.91 per share, beating the $0.86 consensus estimate, while revenue of $2.08 billion exceeded expectations and rose 20.5% year over year.
• Analyst sentiment is broadly cautious: MarketBeat reports a consensus “Hold” rating and an average price target of $150.44, with 11 Buy, 24 Hold, and 6 Sell ratings.

Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 10.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,744,845 shares of the software maker's stock after purchasing an additional 165,225 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned about 0.24% of Fortinet worth $310,950,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of FTNT. Burk Holdings LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Dunhill Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet during the second quarter worth approximately $25,000. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 102.5% during the second quarter. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC now owns 164 shares of the software maker's stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the period. NFSG Corp bought a new position in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, Timbuktu Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Fortinet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $31,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 3,121 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, November 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.49, for a total value of $404,138.29. Following the sale, the vice president owned 9,918,360 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,284,328,436.40. The trade was a 0.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 161,483 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, November 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.31, for a total value of $20,881,366.73. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 52,972,372 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,849,857,423.32. This trade represents a 0.30% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 221,304 shares of company stock valued at $30,675,309. Corporate insiders own 17.60% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Trading Up 1.1%

Fortinet stock opened at $129.54 on Friday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $73.55 and a 12-month high of $197.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $95.17 billion, a PE ratio of 42.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.04. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $165.06 and a 200-day simple moving average of $130.42.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The software maker reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $2.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.06 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 152.72% and a net margin of 28.96%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 20.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.74 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 3.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on FTNT. Roth Capital raised their target price on Fortinet from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Piper Sandler set a $140.00 price target on Fortinet and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. Evercore set a $165.00 price target on Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $165.00 price target on Fortinet and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Thursday, October 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Fortinet from $160.00 to $115.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 30th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty-four have issued a Hold rating and six have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $150.44.

Fortinet Profile

Fortinet, Inc. is a cybersecurity and networking company that provides products and services to help organizations protect their networks, devices, applications, and cloud environments. Its offerings include FortiGate next-generation firewalls, the FortiOS operating system, and security, endpoint, cloud, and secure access service edge (SASE) solutions. The company's Security Fabric platform is designed to integrate security and networking products and support centralized visibility and management.

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