Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Shares Purchased by Prudential Financial Inc.

Prudential Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 104.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 826,136 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 421,569 shares during the quarter. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $78,053,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Fortinet by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,115,470 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $6,435,550,000 after acquiring an additional 730,994 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,281,279 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,115,663,000 after purchasing an additional 766,135 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,883,012 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,151,097,000 after purchasing an additional 354,692 shares during the last quarter. Amundi increased its stake in Fortinet by 36.7% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 6,577,467 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $631,700,000 after purchasing an additional 1,766,860 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in Fortinet by 10.3% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,787,931 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $448,854,000 after buying an additional 542,727 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortinet Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of Fortinet stock opened at $99.79 on Tuesday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $54.57 and a 1-year high of $114.82. The company has a market capitalization of $76.74 billion, a PE ratio of 44.16, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $102.46 and a 200-day moving average of $92.70.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on FTNT shares. Mizuho lifted their price target on Fortinet from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Guggenheim restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday, February 7th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and set a $112.00 price objective (up from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Monday, February 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $105.69.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Fortinet news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total transaction of $2,668,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $537,820.16. This trade represents a 83.23 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director William H. Neukom bought 328 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was bought at an average price of $106.33 per share, for a total transaction of $34,876.24. Following the purchase, the director now owns 300,006 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,899,637.98. This represents a 0.11 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 599,988 shares of company stock worth $59,094,530. Insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

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.