Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Purchases 13,669 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 48.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 41,728 shares of the software maker's stock after purchasing an additional 13,669 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc.'s holdings in Fortinet were worth $3,942,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Fortinet by 1.1% in the fourth 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 raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 2.6% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 31.3% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,388,693 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $792,564,000 after buying an additional 2,000,888 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth about $724,048,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 39.3% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $720,150,000 after acquiring an additional 2,151,811 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director William H. Neukom purchased 328 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $106.33 per share, with a total value of $34,876.24. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 300,006 shares in the company, valued at $31,899,637.98. The trade was a 0.11% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,488 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $5,452,678,361.90. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 697,818 shares of company stock valued at $69,539,128. Company insiders own 17.20% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Trading Down 0.0%

Fortinet stock traded down $0.02 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $102.02. The stock had a trading volume of 17,092,070 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,021,306. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $99.68 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $99.45. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $78.09 billion, a PE ratio of 45.14, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.16. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12 month low of $54.57 and a 12 month high of $114.82.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on FTNT. KeyCorp dropped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Fortinet from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Baird R W downgraded Fortinet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Fortinet from $115.00 to $95.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Roth Capital set a $103.00 price objective on Fortinet and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $104.80.

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.