Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc. Sells 3,273 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc. cut its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 178,568 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 3,273 shares during the quarter. Fortinet comprises about 2.4% of Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest position. Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $16,871,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Manchester Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 13.5% in the 4th quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 843 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $80,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Fortinet by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,833 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $646,000 after buying an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Fielder Capital Group LLC grew its stake in Fortinet by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Fielder Capital Group LLC now owns 6,904 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $652,000 after buying an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Fortinet by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC now owns 8,346 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $789,000 after buying an additional 114 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Truvestments Capital LLC grew its stake in Fortinet by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC now owns 4,310 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $407,000 after buying an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $98.17 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $75.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.44, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. Fortinet, Inc. has a twelve month low of $54.57 and a twelve month high of $114.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $102.21 and a 200 day moving average of $92.12.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on FTNT. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $135.00 target price (up from $120.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 7th. KeyCorp upgraded Fortinet from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $115.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Fortinet from $114.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Susquehanna boosted their target price on Fortinet from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $105.69.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the company’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 $4,576,384,617.36. This represents a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 326,784 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.17, for a total value of $32,080,385.28. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 11,000,068 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,079,876,675.56. This trade represents a 2.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 599,988 shares of company stock worth $59,094,530. Corporate 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.