Stegent Equity Advisors Inc. Acquires 8,836 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Stegent Equity Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 309.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 11,688 shares of the software maker's stock after purchasing an additional 8,836 shares during the quarter. Fortinet comprises about 1.1% of Stegent Equity Advisors Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 28th biggest holding. Stegent Equity Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Fortinet were worth $1,125,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in FTNT. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $724,048,000. Schroder Investment Management Group purchased a new position in Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $389,867,000. FMR LLC increased its stake in 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 last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in Fortinet by 39.3% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $720,150,000 after purchasing an additional 2,151,811 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. increased its stake in 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 last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Fortinet from $115.00 to $95.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their price objective on Fortinet from $115.00 to $100.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Fortinet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, June 28th. DZ Bank raised Fortinet from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on Fortinet from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have given a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $105.62.

Fortinet Price Performance

FTNT traded down $1.14 on Friday, hitting $99.06. 4,128,922 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,876,859. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12 month low of $54.57 and a 12 month high of $114.82. The business has a 50-day moving average of $103.23 and a two-hundred day moving average of $100.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $75.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.77, a PEG ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 1.06.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last posted 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 net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 148.79%. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.54 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.43 earnings per share. Fortinet's revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,488 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 3,546 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was 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 of the company's stock, valued at $1,167,217,215.48. This trade represents a 0.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 17.20% of the company's stock.

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.