Meridian Management Co. Acquires 3,479 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Meridian Management Co. grew its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 8.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 44,123 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,479 shares during the period. Fortinet comprises about 1.2% of Meridian Management Co.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest holding. Meridian Management Co.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $4,408,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 71,662,404 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $6,898,223,000 after purchasing an additional 3,546,934 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased 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 worth $824,999,000 after purchasing an additional 181,835 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 17.1% in the 1st 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 purchasing an additional 1,026,277 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,519,558 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $627,573,000 after purchasing an additional 49,238 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 40.9% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,971,648 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $561,156,000 after purchasing an additional 1,733,670 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on FTNT. DZ Bank raised Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, August 8th. Erste Group Bank lowered Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 14th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Fortinet from $110.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Citigroup lowered Fortinet from a “neutral” rating to a “mixed” rating in a report on Monday, October 20th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $85.00 price objective (down previously from $125.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, August 7th. 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.03.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $86.43 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $82.56 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $93.48. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52-week low of $70.12 and a 52-week 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. The firm has a market capitalization of $66.23 billion, a PE ratio of 34.43, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.09.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 9,730,560 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $958,265,548.80. This represents a 4.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total value of $15,607,701.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly 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 is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 17.20% of the company’s stock.

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.