St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC Acquires 5,539 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 726.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,302 shares of the software maker's stock after purchasing an additional 5,539 shares during the period. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC's holdings in Fortinet were worth $607,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth about $724,048,000. Schroder Investment Management Group bought a new stake in Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at about $389,867,000. FMR LLC raised its stake in Fortinet by 77.2% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,531,705 shares of the software maker's stock worth $617,115,000 after buying an additional 2,846,475 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 39.3% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker's stock worth $720,150,000 after acquiring an additional 2,151,811 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. grew its stake in Fortinet by 72.6% in the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 4,906,439 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $463,561,000 after acquiring an additional 2,064,016 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,488 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.10, for a total value of $16,815,576.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,452,678,361.90. The trade was a 0.31% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director William H. Neukom bought 335 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, June 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $104.22 per share, with a total value of $34,913.70. Following the transaction, the director now directly 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. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Stock Performance

FTNT stock traded down $0.73 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $103.69. The company had a trading volume of 2,791,906 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,885,323. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.36. The firm has a market cap of $79.37 billion, a PE ratio of 42.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.56 and a beta of 1.06. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12 month low of $54.57 and a 12 month high of $114.82. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $102.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $100.36.

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, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.05. Fortinet had a net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 148.79%. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.54 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.43 EPS. Fortinet's revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on FTNT. KeyCorp lowered their target price on Fortinet from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $100.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $105.00 to $95.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $113.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a "buy" rating and issued a $125.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, June 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $104.80.

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.