NBC Securities Inc. Increases Stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

NBC Securities Inc. increased its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 99,075.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,967 shares of the software maker's stock after buying an additional 3,963 shares during the period. NBC Securities Inc.'s holdings in Fortinet were worth $381,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of FTNT. Czech National Bank increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 5.9% in the first quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 146,115 shares of the software maker's stock worth $14,065,000 after purchasing an additional 8,183 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its position in Fortinet by 3.7% during the first quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 1,266,126 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $121,877,000 after purchasing an additional 44,781 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Fortinet by 2.0% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,968 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $671,000 after purchasing an additional 135 shares during the last quarter. Rooted Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Fortinet by 6.8% during the first quarter. Rooted Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 4,377 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $421,000 after purchasing an additional 279 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fulcrum Capital LLC lifted its position in Fortinet by 2.0% during the first quarter. Fulcrum Capital LLC now owns 128,494 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $12,369,000 after purchasing an additional 2,474 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FTNT has been the topic of several research reports. KeyCorp decreased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Stephens assumed coverage on shares of Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. They set an "equal weight" rating and a $108.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $123.00 to $105.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Fortinet from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Fortinet from $122.00 to $110.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $104.80.

Fortinet Trading Up 1.4%

NASDAQ:FTNT traded up $1.44 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $104.94. 3,296,603 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,974,811. The firm's fifty day moving average is $100.18 and its 200-day moving average is $99.78. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $54.57 and a 12-month high of $114.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $80.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.43, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.43 EPS. Fortinet's quarterly revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 326,784 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.17, for a total value of $32,080,385.28. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 11,000,068 shares in the company, valued at $1,079,876,675.56. This trade represents a 2.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director William H. Neukom bought 335 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Friday, June 6th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $104.22 per share, for a total transaction of $34,913.70. Following the purchase, the director now owns 301,471 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $31,419,307.62. This trade represents a 0.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 697,818 shares of company stock worth $69,539,128 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company's stock.

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.