Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Shares Acquired by Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC

Key Points

• Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. by 60.0% in the first quarter, owning 13,354 shares valued at approximately $1.29 million.
• Fortinet reported strong quarterly results, with an EPS of $0.58 surpassing analysts' expectations of $0.53 and a revenue of $1.54 billion, marking a 13.8% year-over-year increase.
• Wall Street analysts currently have a consensus rating of "Hold" for Fortinet, with a target price averaging $107.00 per share amidst varying ratings from different brokerages.

Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 60.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 13,354 shares of the software maker's stock after purchasing an additional 5,008 shares during the quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC's holdings in Fortinet were worth $1,285,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in FTNT. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 77.2% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,531,705 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $617,115,000 after purchasing an additional 2,846,475 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 72.6% in the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 4,906,439 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $463,561,000 after purchasing an additional 2,064,016 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 31.3% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,388,693 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $792,564,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000,888 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 1,910,771 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Fortinet by 17.2% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,470,320 shares of the software maker's stock worth $611,316,000 after acquiring an additional 951,233 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of Fortinet stock opened at $104.88 on Tuesday. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $103.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $101.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $80.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.16, a PEG 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 debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 1.29.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The software maker reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.54 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 148.79%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.43 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on FTNT. Barclays set a $110.00 price target on shares of Fortinet and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, July 14th. Roth Capital set a $103.00 price target on shares of Fortinet and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $135.00 to $115.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $107.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other news, Director William H. Neukom acquired 335 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, June 6th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $104.22 per share, with a total value of $34,913.70. Following the purchase, the director owned 301,471 shares of the company's stock, valued at $31,419,307.62. This represents a 0.11% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 3,546 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.11, for a total transaction of $376,266.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 11,000,068 shares in the company, valued at $1,167,217,215.48. This represents a 0.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 17.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Fortinet

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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