SCS Capital Management LLC Takes Position in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Key Points

• SCS Capital Management LLC has acquired a new stake in Fortinet, Inc., purchasing 6,677 shares valued at approximately $643,000 during the first quarter.
• Several institutional investors have increased their holdings in Fortinet, with total institutional ownership now at 83.71%.
• Fortinet reported a quarterly earnings per share of $0.64, exceeding expectations and driving a 13.6% year-over-year revenue growth to $1.63 billion.

SCS Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 6,677 shares of the software maker's stock, valued at approximately $643,000.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ritholtz Wealth Management raised its stake in Fortinet by 38.4% during the 1st quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 6,794 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $654,000 after purchasing an additional 1,885 shares during the last quarter. Gould Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 1st quarter valued at about $908,000. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $216,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in Fortinet by 40.8% during the 1st quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 131,411 shares of the software maker's stock worth $12,650,000 after buying an additional 38,080 shares during the period. Finally, BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 14.9% in the fourth quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 124,501 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $11,763,000 after purchasing an additional 16,139 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on FTNT shares. Erste Group Bank cut shares of Fortinet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. UBS Group cut their price target on Fortinet from $105.00 to $90.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Truist Financial lowered their price target on Fortinet from $125.00 to $95.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on Fortinet from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, Wedbush dropped their price target on Fortinet from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $97.03.

Fortinet Trading Down 1.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT traded down $1.21 during trading on Friday, hitting $79.68. The company had a trading volume of 4,424,982 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,396,253. 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 company has a fifty day simple moving average of $89.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $96.85. Fortinet, Inc. has a one year low of $70.12 and a one year high of $114.82. The stock has a market cap of $61.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 1.12.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owned 9,730,560 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $958,265,548.80. The trade was a 4.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total transaction of $15,607,701.28. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $5,061,072,243.92. The trade was a 0.31% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 17.20% 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.