Verus Capital Partners LLC Boosts Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Verus Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 11.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,775 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 505 shares during the quarter. Verus Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $451,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in Fortinet by 21.0% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 15,977 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,239,000 after purchasing an additional 2,775 shares during the last quarter. abrdn plc increased its position in Fortinet by 8.2% in the third quarter. abrdn plc now owns 260,612 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $20,128,000 after buying an additional 19,655 shares during the last quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 3rd quarter valued at $218,000. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 17.0% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 22,340 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,732,000 after buying an additional 3,241 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Catalyst Financial Partners LLC increased its holdings in Fortinet by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC now owns 4,761 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $369,000 after acquiring an additional 325 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortinet Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of FTNT opened at $108.01 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.47. Fortinet, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $54.57 and a fifty-two week high of $114.82. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $101.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $89.75. The firm has a market cap of $82.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.79, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.01.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Fortinet from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. 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. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $135.00 target price (up previously from $120.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday, February 7th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $112.00 price target (up from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Fortinet from $77.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $103.72.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total transaction of $2,150,466.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 49,039,698 shares in the company, valued at $4,576,384,617.36. This represents a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director William H. Neukom purchased 355 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $98.50 per share, for a total transaction of $34,967.50. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 150,245 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,799,132.50. The trade was a 0.24 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold 87,120 shares of company stock worth $8,991,409 in the last ninety days. 18.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.