Arete Wealth Advisors LLC Boosts Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Arete Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 22.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,570 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,779 shares during the quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $904,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Graney & King LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at $46,000. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at $56,000. Finally, LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA increased its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 490 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on FTNT shares. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Baird R W cut Fortinet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Fortinet from $85.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Fortinet from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $105.77.

Fortinet Stock Performance

FTNT stock opened at $84.71 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $65.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.48, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.09. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $54.57 and a 12-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’s 50 day simple moving average is $102.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $93.74.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its earnings results 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 net margin of 29.30% and a return on equity of 256.53%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other news, Director Kenneth A. Goldman sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total value of $200,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,861,200. This represents a 9.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 326,784 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.17, for a total transaction of $32,080,385.28. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 11,000,068 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,079,876,675.56. This trade represents a 2.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 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.