Schroder Investment Management Group Buys Shares of 4,126,449 Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Schroder Investment Management Group purchased a new position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 4,126,449 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $389,867,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $724,048,000. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 276.3% in 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 last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 39.3% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $720,150,000 after acquiring an additional 2,151,811 shares during the period. Amundi increased its position in Fortinet by 36.7% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 6,577,467 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $631,700,000 after acquiring an additional 1,766,860 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its position in Fortinet by 136.0% during the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,919,952 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $275,877,000 after acquiring an additional 1,682,708 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortinet Trading Down 3.0 %

Shares of FTNT opened at $96.60 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $74.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.74, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.39. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $54.57 and a 1-year high of $114.82. The company has a 50-day moving average of $102.97 and a 200 day moving average of $93.26.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. On average, research analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on FTNT. Baird R W downgraded Fortinet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $123.00 target price for the company. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $135.00 target price (up from $120.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday, February 7th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, KeyCorp upgraded Fortinet from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $115.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $105.69.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total value of $2,150,466.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 49,039,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,576,384,617.36. The trade was a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total value of $2,668,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,736 shares in the company, valued at $537,820.16. This trade represents a 83.23 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 599,988 shares of company stock worth $59,094,530. Company insiders own 18.00% 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.