Merit Financial Group LLC Buys 19,315 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Merit Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 13.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 158,634 shares of the software maker's stock after purchasing an additional 19,315 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC's holdings in Fortinet were worth $15,270,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 730,994 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Fortinet by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,270,913 shares of the software maker's stock worth $1,440,648,000 after acquiring an additional 387,901 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Fortinet by 31.3% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,388,693 shares of the software maker's stock worth $792,564,000 after acquiring an additional 2,000,888 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth about $724,048,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in Fortinet by 39.3% in 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 last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other news, Director Kenneth A. Goldman sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.32, for a total value of $99,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 20,612 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,047,183.84. This represents a 4.63% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 206,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.93, for a total value of $19,967,580.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 697,818 shares of company stock valued at $69,539,128. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Trading Down 1.2%

NASDAQ FTNT traded down $1.26 on Wednesday, hitting $101.62. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,392,828 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,969,723. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52-week low of $54.57 and a 52-week high of $114.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $99.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $99.59. The firm has a market cap of $77.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.96, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.06.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The software maker reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.54 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.43 EPS. The business's revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FTNT has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Scotiabank decreased their target price on Fortinet from $135.00 to $115.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Stephens initiated coverage on Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. They issued an "equal weight" rating and a $108.00 target price on the stock. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Fortinet from $122.00 to $110.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Fortinet in a research report on Monday, May 12th. They set a "peer perform" rating on the stock. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $135.00 price objective (up from $120.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $104.80.

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.