AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc Grows Stock Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc increased its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 1,348.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,883 shares of the software maker's stock after acquiring an additional 2,684 shares during the quarter. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc's holdings in Fortinet were worth $277,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,115,470 shares of the software maker's stock worth $6,435,550,000 after purchasing an additional 730,994 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,270,913 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $1,440,648,000 after buying an additional 387,901 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position 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 last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at $724,048,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in Fortinet by 39.3% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker's stock worth $720,150,000 after acquiring an additional 2,151,811 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Fortinet stock traded up $1.57 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $105.07. 1,591,187 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,960,871. The firm has a market capitalization of $80.42 billion, a PE ratio of 46.49, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $100.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $99.69. Fortinet, Inc. has a one year low of $54.57 and a one year high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The software maker reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.05. Fortinet had a net margin of 29.30% and a return on equity of 256.53%. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.43 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FTNT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Fortinet from $115.00 to $95.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on Fortinet from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Fortinet from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $100.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $104.80.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 206,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.93, for a total transaction of $19,967,580.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 51,391,879 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,981,414,831.47. This represents a 0.40% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 3,546 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.11, for a total value of $376,266.06. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 11,000,068 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,167,217,215.48. The trade was a 0.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 697,818 shares of company stock valued at $69,539,128 in the last three months. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company's stock.

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.