Teacher Retirement System of Texas Buys 321,152 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 169.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 510,776 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 321,152 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas owned about 0.07% of Fortinet worth $48,258,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth about $46,000. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 445.5% in the fourth quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 600 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $57,000 after buying an additional 490 shares during the period. Private Trust Co. NA raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 95.0% in the fourth quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 630 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $60,000 after buying an additional 307 shares during the period. R Squared Ltd bought a new stake in Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $65,000. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Fortinet by 30.6% during the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 696 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $66,000 after purchasing an additional 163 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on FTNT. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $135.00 target price (up previously from $120.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $112.00 target price (up previously from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. StockNews.com downgraded Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lifted their target price on Fortinet from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $105.69.

Fortinet Price Performance

FTNT opened at $98.45 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $102.26 and a 200 day moving average of $92.16. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52-week low of $54.57 and a 52-week high of $114.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The stock has a market cap of $75.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.56, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) 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, sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, Director Kenneth A. Goldman sold 2,000 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total transaction of $200,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 18,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,861,200. The trade was a 9.70 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 326,784 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction 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 sale, the vice president now directly owns 11,000,068 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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. Insiders sold a total of 599,988 shares of company stock worth $59,094,530 in the last quarter. 18.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.