Sovran Advisors LLC Takes Position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Sovran Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 4,314 shares of the software maker's stock, valued at approximately $415,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of FTNT. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,115,470 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $6,435,550,000 after purchasing an additional 730,994 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,270,913 shares of the software maker's stock worth $1,440,648,000 after buying an additional 387,901 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Fortinet by 31.3% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,388,693 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $792,564,000 after acquiring an additional 2,000,888 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth about $724,048,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 39.3% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $720,150,000 after purchasing an additional 2,151,811 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Fortinet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, June 28th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target 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. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Fortinet from $110.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Fortinet from $115.00 to $95.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $125.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, June 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have given a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $105.62.

Fortinet Trading Up 3.0%

Shares of Fortinet stock traded up $3.08 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $105.29. The stock had a trading volume of 2,861,475 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,850,454. The firm has a market capitalization of $80.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.33, a P/E/G ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 1.06. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1 year low of $54.57 and a 1 year high of $114.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $103.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $100.58.

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

Insider Activity

In other Fortinet news, Director William H. Neukom purchased 335 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 6th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $104.22 per share, with a total value of $34,913.70. Following the transaction, the director owned 301,471 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,419,307.62. This trade represents a 0.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,488 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were 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 approximately $5,452,678,361.90. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 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.