Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Acquires 2,612 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 7.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 38,450 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,612 shares during the quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $4,065,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. 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 acquiring an additional 3,546,934 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Fortinet by 2.2% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,570,528 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $824,999,000 after acquiring an additional 181,835 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its position in Fortinet by 17.1% during 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 worth $675,405,000 after acquiring an additional 1,026,277 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Fortinet by 0.8% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,519,558 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $627,573,000 after acquiring an additional 49,238 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in Fortinet by 40.9% during the first 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 during the period. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Fortinet Trading Down 0.3%

FTNT opened at $85.29 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $82.06 and its 200-day moving average is $93.83. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $70.12 and a 1-year high of $114.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The company has a market cap of $65.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.98, a PEG ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.09.

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

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total transaction of $46,935,174.08. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 9,730,560 shares in the company, valued at $958,265,548.80. This trade represents a 4.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total transaction of $15,607,701.28. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,061,072,243.92. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 18.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on FTNT shares. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $105.00 to $78.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 8th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. DZ Bank raised shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, August 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $95.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Citigroup lowered shares of Fortinet from a “neutral” rating to a “mixed” rating in a report on Monday, October 20th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, twenty-five have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.03.

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.