Machina Capital S.A.S. Makes New Investment in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Key Points

• Machina Capital S.A.S. has acquired a new stake in Fortinet, purchasing 3,473 shares valued at approximately $334,000 in the first quarter.
• Fortinet's shares have a market capitalization of $80.23 billion, with a twelve-month high of $114.82 and earnings per share of $0.58 reported in their latest earnings announcement.
• Institutional investors currently hold 83.71% of Fortinet's stock, indicating strong institutional confidence in the company.

Machina Capital S.A.S. purchased a new position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 3,473 shares of the software maker's stock, valued at approximately $334,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. AE Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Fortinet by 19.9% during the first quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,358 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $516,000 after buying an additional 890 shares during the last quarter. Burney Co. boosted its stake in Fortinet by 5.3% during the first quarter. Burney Co. now owns 381,184 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $36,693,000 after buying an additional 19,276 shares during the last quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. boosted its stake in Fortinet by 1.2% during the first quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. now owns 15,417 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $1,484,000 after buying an additional 176 shares during the last quarter. Roundview Capital LLC boosted its stake in Fortinet by 4.1% during the first quarter. Roundview Capital LLC now owns 36,945 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $3,556,000 after buying an additional 1,443 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SYM FINANCIAL Corp boosted its stake in Fortinet by 10.0% during the first quarter. SYM FINANCIAL Corp now owns 5,810 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $559,000 after buying an additional 527 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Fortinet Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT traded up $0.36 on Monday, reaching $105.18. The company had a trading volume of 1,015,802 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,750,024. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52-week low of $54.57 and a 52-week high of $114.82. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $103.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $101.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $80.51 billion, a PE ratio of 43.27, a PEG ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a current ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The software maker reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.05. Fortinet had a return on equity of 148.79% and a net margin of 30.60%. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.54 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.43 EPS. The business's revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on FTNT. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Fortinet from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Fortinet from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Fortinet from $115.00 to $95.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Fortinet from $123.00 to $105.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, DZ Bank raised Fortinet from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $107.00.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,488 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.10, for a total value of $16,815,576.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 51,391,879 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,452,678,361.90. This trade represents a 0.31% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director William H. Neukom acquired 335 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 6th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $104.22 per share, with a total value of $34,913.70. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 301,471 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,419,307.62. This represents a 0.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 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.