Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV Buys Shares of 7,147 Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Key Points

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Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV purchased a new position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 7,147 shares of the software maker's stock, valued at approximately $688,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of FTNT. Eagle Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 26,176 shares of the software maker's stock worth $2,473,000 after acquiring an additional 404 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in Fortinet by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 10,327 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $976,000 after buying an additional 221 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Fortinet by 50.5% during the 4th quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 31,481 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $2,974,000 after buying an additional 10,562 shares during the last quarter. Farringdon Capital Ltd. acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at $202,000. Finally, Freedom Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Fortinet by 22.1% during the 4th quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,751 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $449,000 after buying an additional 861 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Trading Down 3.3%

Shares of FTNT traded down $2.67 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $78.09. The stock had a trading volume of 15,005,711 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,504,260. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.33. The firm has a market cap of $59.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.11, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.07. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $98.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $100.77. 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.05. Fortinet had a return on equity of 111.46% and a net margin of 30.60%.The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.57 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total value of $15,607,701.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,061,072,243.92. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total value of $46,935,174.08. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 9,730,560 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $958,265,548.80. This represents a 4.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 18.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on FTNT. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Scotiabank decreased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $85.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Evercore ISI cut their price target on Fortinet from $105.00 to $78.00 and set an "in-line" rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 8th. Wedbush reduced their price target on Fortinet from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Roth Capital set a $103.00 price objective on Fortinet and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $97.40.

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.