Empirical Finance LLC Sells 274 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Empirical Finance LLC lessened its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 1.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 21,383 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 274 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $2,020,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 2.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,281,279 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,115,663,000 after acquiring an additional 766,135 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Fortinet by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,883,012 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,151,097,000 after purchasing an additional 354,692 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in Fortinet by 10.3% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,787,931 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $448,854,000 after purchasing an additional 542,727 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,817,859 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $296,075,000 after purchasing an additional 68,852 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 276.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,685,230 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $285,790,000 after buying an additional 2,705,767 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Trading Up 2.8 %

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $107.66 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $97.38 and a 200-day moving average of $84.94. 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 has a market cap of $82.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.64, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.01. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $54.57 and a 1-year high of $110.53.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a net margin of 29.30% and a return on equity of 463.85%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 4,250 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.83, for a total value of $386,027.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $425,901.87. The trade was a 47.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director William H. Neukom purchased 355 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $98.50 per share, for a total transaction of $34,967.50. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 150,245 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,799,132.50. This represents a 0.24 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 67,860 shares of company stock worth $6,469,056 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on FTNT. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Fortinet from $105.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Barclays increased their target price on Fortinet from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Fortinet from $85.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $101.43.

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.