Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT Shares Acquired by Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC

Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 1,160.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 882 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 812 shares during the quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $93,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Fortinet by 5.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 71,662,404 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $6,898,223,000 after buying an additional 3,546,934 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,570,528 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $824,999,000 after buying an additional 181,835 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 17.1% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 7,016,467 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $675,405,000 after acquiring an additional 1,026,277 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 0.8% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,519,558 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $627,573,000 after purchasing an additional 49,238 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 40.9% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,971,648 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $561,156,000 after acquiring an additional 1,733,670 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on FTNT. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Wedbush dropped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Barclays reduced their price objective on Fortinet from $110.00 to $90.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $85.00 target price (down previously from $110.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $105.00 to $78.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.03.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of FTNT opened at $85.79 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $65.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.09. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $83.35 and its 200-day moving average is $95.06. Fortinet, Inc. has a one year low of $70.12 and a one year high of $114.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.33.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.63 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 111.46%. Fortinet’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.57 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total value of $46,935,174.08. Following the sale, the vice president owned 9,730,560 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $958,265,548.80. The trade was a 4.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total value of $15,607,701.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 51,391,879 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,061,072,243.92. This trade represents a 0.31% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 17.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.