State of Wyoming Increases Stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

State of Wyoming boosted its position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 203.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 8,883 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,956 shares during the period. State of Wyoming’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $839,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. bought a new stake in Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Oarsman Capital Inc. boosted its stake in Fortinet by 188.9% during the fourth quarter. Oarsman Capital Inc. now owns 416 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 272 shares during the period. Graney & King LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. Banque Transatlantique SA bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $46,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,488 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.10, for a total value of $16,815,576.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 51,391,879 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,452,678,361.90. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director William H. Neukom acquired 328 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $106.33 per share, for a total transaction of $34,876.24. Following the purchase, the director now owns 300,006 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,899,637.98. This represents a 0.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 738,978 shares of company stock worth $74,135,907 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 17.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 31st. DZ Bank raised shares of Fortinet from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Fortinet from $122.00 to $110.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Fortinet from $123.00 to $105.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Roth Capital set a $103.00 price objective on Fortinet and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have assigned a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $104.80.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $104.59 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $80.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.16. 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 business has a 50-day moving average price of $98.53 and a 200-day moving average price of $98.29. Fortinet, Inc. has a twelve month low of $54.57 and a twelve month high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The software maker reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.54 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.43 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortinet Company 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.