Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC. Trims Stock Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC. reduced its position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 6.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 225,996 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 14,815 shares during the quarter. Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC.'s holdings in Fortinet were worth $21,352,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 1.1% in the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,270,913 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $1,440,648,000 after purchasing an additional 387,901 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 31.3% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,388,693 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $792,564,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000,888 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $724,048,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in Fortinet by 39.3% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $720,150,000 after buying an additional 2,151,811 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Fortinet Price Performance

FTNT stock traded up $0.78 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $103.62. 3,652,798 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,970,390. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52-week low of $54.57 and a 52-week high of $114.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The company has a market capitalization of $79.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.85, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $99.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $98.85.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The software maker reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. Fortinet's revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.43 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on FTNT. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Fortinet in a report on Monday, May 12th. They issued a "peer perform" rating for the company. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $95.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Fortinet from $122.00 to $110.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price objective on Fortinet from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $104.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 326,784 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.17, for a total transaction of $32,080,385.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 11,000,068 shares in the company, valued at $1,079,876,675.56. This represents a 2.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,488 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 715,478 shares of company stock worth $71,467,247 in the last quarter. 17.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Fortinet

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.