Archford Capital Strategies LLC Cuts Stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Archford Capital Strategies LLC decreased its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 16.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 4,266 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 840 shares during the period. Archford Capital Strategies LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $403,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of FTNT. FMR LLC lifted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 2,705,767 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 3,155.6% during the third quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 1,237,244 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $95,948,000 after purchasing an additional 1,199,241 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 2.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,281,279 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,115,663,000 after purchasing an additional 766,135 shares during the period. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Fortinet by 98.9% during the 3rd quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 1,457,858 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $113,057,000 after purchasing an additional 724,887 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can increased its stake in Fortinet by 27.6% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 2,584,528 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $200,172,000 after buying an additional 558,807 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $96.90 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $95.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $81.90. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52 week low of $54.57 and a 52 week high of $101.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.34. The company has a market cap of $74.27 billion, a PE ratio of 48.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.00.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The software maker reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.13. Fortinet had a return on equity of 973.30% and a net margin of 26.79%. The company had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.48 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.35 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 22,916 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.93, for a total transaction of $2,244,163.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,983,683 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,796,972,076.19. This trade represents a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director William H. Neukom purchased 355 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $98.50 per share, for a total transaction of $34,967.50. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 150,245 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,799,132.50. The trade was a 0.24 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 67,860 shares of company stock worth $6,469,056. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com upgraded Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Fortinet from $87.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $105.00 to $106.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $96.83.

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.