5,000 Shares in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Bought by Aristides Capital LLC

Aristides Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 5,000 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $301,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Focus Financial Network Inc. ADV bought a new position in Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $260,000. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 1,058,235 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $61,938,000 after buying an additional 12,944 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its holdings in Fortinet by 18.6% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 72,310 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,232,000 after buying an additional 11,342 shares during the last quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Fortinet by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 34,327 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,009,000 after acquiring an additional 616 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 23.4% in the fourth quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 404,401 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $23,670,000 after acquiring an additional 76,722 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $77.55 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $59.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.00. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.12 and a 1-year high of $78.18. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $71.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $65.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 1.22.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 2,160.10% and a net margin of 23.71%. The business’s revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.31 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,538 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.94, for a total transaction of $1,763,937.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,878,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,662,977,721.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,538 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.94, for a total transaction of $1,763,937.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,878,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,662,977,721.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total value of $1,386,590.32. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,847,018 shares in the company, valued at $608,626,179.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 96,210 shares of company stock valued at $6,337,801. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on FTNT shares. DZ Bank upgraded Fortinet from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Guggenheim lowered Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. HSBC raised shares of Fortinet from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $59.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Twenty-three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $71.57.

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.