Sheets Smith Wealth Management Grows Position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Sheets Smith Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 21.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,580 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,880 shares during the period. Sheets Smith Wealth Management’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $1,000,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of FTNT. Eastern Bank acquired a new stake in Fortinet in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the third quarter valued at $26,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC grew its holdings in Fortinet by 73.3% during the 3rd quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 409 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares in the last quarter. City State Bank increased its stake in Fortinet by 900.0% during the 3rd quarter. City State Bank now owns 500 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 450 shares during the period. Finally, Paladin Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $46,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total value of $2,150,466.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 49,039,698 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,576,384,617.36. The trade was a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director William H. Neukom purchased 355 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $98.50 per share, with a total value of $34,967.50. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 150,245 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,799,132.50. The trade was a 0.24 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold 67,860 shares of company stock valued at $6,469,056 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $97.20 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $74.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 1.00. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $54.57 and a 1-year high of $101.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $95.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $81.10.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The software maker reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.13. Fortinet had a return on equity of 973.30% and a net margin of 26.79%. The company had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.48 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.35 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Fortinet from $90.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $105.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price objective on Fortinet from $88.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have issued a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $96.33.

Fortinet Company 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.