Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Shares Acquired by Jefferies Financial Group Inc.

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 48.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 41,728 shares of the software maker's stock after buying an additional 13,669 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc.'s holdings in Fortinet were worth $3,942,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Geller Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $225,000. Gotham Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Fortinet by 11.0% in the fourth quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 81,486 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $7,699,000 after acquiring an additional 8,081 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 34.5% during the fourth quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 41,696 shares of the software maker's stock worth $3,939,000 after buying an additional 10,692 shares during the period. Ethic Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 18.0% during the fourth quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 37,512 shares of the software maker's stock worth $3,544,000 after buying an additional 5,731 shares during the period. Finally, Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 5.6% during the fourth quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC now owns 673,412 shares of the software maker's stock worth $63,624,000 after buying an additional 35,470 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 206,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.93, for a total transaction of $19,967,580.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 51,391,879 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,981,414,831.47. This represents a 0.40% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total transaction of $2,668,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,736 shares in the company, valued at approximately $537,820.16. The trade was a 83.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 738,978 shares of company stock valued at $74,135,907 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 17.20% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FTNT has been the subject of several research reports. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $95.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Stephens assumed coverage on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. They set an "equal weight" rating and a $108.00 price objective for the company. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 31st. Baird R W cut shares of Fortinet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $104.80.

Fortinet Trading Up 2.0%

Fortinet stock traded up $2.03 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $104.59. 4,506,022 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,961,182. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $98.40 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $97.98. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $54.57 and a 12-month high of $114.82. The firm has a market cap of $80.05 billion, a PE ratio of 46.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67.

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

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.