Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Raises Position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 10.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,705,200 shares of the software maker's stock after buying an additional 154,467 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned approximately 0.22% of Fortinet worth $164,143,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Eagle Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 404 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in Fortinet by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 10,327 shares of the software maker's stock worth $976,000 after purchasing an additional 221 shares in the last quarter. Nwam LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $203,000. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. lifted its stake in Fortinet by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 36,293 shares of the software maker's stock worth $3,429,000 after purchasing an additional 217 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Fortinet by 18,353.2% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 547,323 shares of the software maker's stock worth $547,000 after purchasing an additional 544,357 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on FTNT shares. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Monday, May 12th. They issued a "peer perform" rating on the stock. Scotiabank decreased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $135.00 to $115.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. KeyCorp decreased their target price 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. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "buy" rating and set a $125.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, June 17th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $95.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have issued a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $105.62.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other news, Director William H. Neukom acquired 335 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 6th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $104.22 per share, with a total value of $34,913.70. Following the transaction, the director now owns 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,488 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.10, for a total transaction of $16,815,576.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 51,391,879 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,452,678,361.90. This trade represents a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 17.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $103.11 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52 week low of $54.57 and a 52 week high of $114.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $78.92 billion, a PE ratio of 42.43, a P/E/G ratio of 3.56 and a beta of 1.06. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $102.54 and a two-hundred day moving average of $100.49.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last issued 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. Fortinet had a net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 148.79%. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.54 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.43 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.

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