abrdn plc Acquires 130,308 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

abrdn plc boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 66.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 325,017 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 130,308 shares during the period. abrdn plc’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $19,023,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 156.8% in the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 9,441,059 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $554,945,000 after purchasing an additional 5,765,174 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,664,124 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $508,411,000 after acquiring an additional 108,548 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Fortinet by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,595,608 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $328,350,000 after purchasing an additional 269,202 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Fortinet by 4.2% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,789,106 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $222,345,000 after purchasing an additional 153,119 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 79.6% during the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 3,576,224 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $209,853,000 after purchasing an additional 1,585,236 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.07, for a total value of $3,183,021.88. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 51,813,638 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,578,767,976.66. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 38,369 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.45, for a total transaction of $2,549,620.05. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 29,887,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,985,992,346.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.07, for a total transaction of $3,183,021.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 51,813,638 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,578,767,976.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 132,139 shares of company stock valued at $8,977,876 in the last three months. 17.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FTNT has been the topic of several research reports. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. HSBC cut shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and set a $57.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Fortinet from $60.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. DZ Bank lowered Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, Wedbush boosted their target price on Fortinet from $75.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have assigned a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $72.19.

Fortinet Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of Fortinet stock opened at $65.45 on Thursday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.12 and a 52-week high of $81.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.19. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $68.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.70. The firm has a market cap of $49.94 billion, a PE ratio of 45.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.08.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 5th. The software maker reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.08. Fortinet had a net margin of 21.64% and a negative return on equity of 7,572.46%. The company had revenue of $1.42 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.41 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.38 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.39 earnings per share 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.