Magnetar Financial LLC Makes New $522,000 Investment in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Key Points

• Magnetar Financial LLC invested approximately $522,000 in Fortinet, Inc. by acquiring 5,424 shares during the first quarter.
• Institutional investors hold 83.71% of Fortinet's stock, with significant increases in holdings reported from firms like Vanguard Group and Goldman Sachs.
• Fortinet's recent earnings report showed a 13.6% increase in revenue year-over-year and an EPS of $0.64, exceeding analyst expectations.

Magnetar Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 5,424 shares of the software maker's stock, valued at approximately $522,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 5.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 71,662,404 shares of the software maker's stock worth $6,898,223,000 after acquiring an additional 3,546,934 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2.2% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,570,528 shares of the software maker's stock worth $824,999,000 after acquiring an additional 181,835 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 0.8% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,519,558 shares of the software maker's stock worth $627,573,000 after acquiring an additional 49,238 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,990,190 shares of the software maker's stock worth $565,953,000 after acquiring an additional 202,259 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 8.3% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,106,259 shares of the software maker's stock worth $491,528,000 after acquiring an additional 389,718 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total transaction of $46,935,174.08. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 9,730,560 shares in the company, valued at $958,265,548.80. This represents a 4.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director William H. Neukom purchased 335 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, June 6th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $104.22 per share, with a total value of $34,913.70. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 301,471 shares of the company's stock, valued at $31,419,307.62. The trade was a 0.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 17.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $78.77 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $60.36 billion, a PE ratio of 31.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 1.24. The business has a 50-day moving average of $94.69 and a two-hundred day moving average of $99.03. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12 month low of $70.12 and a 12 month high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 111.46% and a net margin of 30.60%.The firm's revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.57 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Fortinet from $110.00 to $85.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Barclays cut their price target on Fortinet from $110.00 to $90.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $85.00 target price (down from $125.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Erste Group Bank lowered Fortinet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their target price on Fortinet from $125.00 to $95.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $97.40.

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.

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