Meritage Portfolio Management Has $32.52 Million Stock Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Meritage Portfolio Management lowered its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 2.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 337,878 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 8,438 shares during the period. Fortinet makes up 2.2% of Meritage Portfolio Management's portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest position. Meritage Portfolio Management's holdings in Fortinet were worth $32,524,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of FTNT. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 703.1% during the first quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 257 shares of the software maker's stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. ORG Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 47.5% during the first quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 348 shares of the software maker's stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares in the last quarter. EQ Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the first quarter worth $35,000. Finally, Oarsman Capital Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 188.9% during the fourth quarter. Oarsman Capital Inc. now owns 416 shares of the software maker's stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 272 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FTNT has been the topic of several analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their target price on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $100.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Fortinet from $122.00 to $110.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. DZ Bank raised shares of Fortinet from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Finally, Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday, May 12th. They set a "peer perform" rating on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have assigned a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $105.62.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT traded up $3.06 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $105.27. The company had a trading volume of 2,864,114 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,864,683. 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 business's 50-day simple moving average is $103.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $100.68. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12 month low of $54.57 and a 12 month high of $114.82. The firm has a market cap of $80.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.32, a PEG ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 1.06.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The software maker reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion during 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 firm's revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.43 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,488 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.10, for a total transaction of $16,815,576.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $5,452,678,361.90. This trade represents a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 3,546 shares of the firm's 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 transaction, the vice president owned 11,000,068 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,167,217,215.48. This represents a 0.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate 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.