Evanson Asset Management LLC Acquires Shares of 3,363 Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Evanson Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 3,363 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $261,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. purchased a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth about $10,394,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 26.9% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 10,001 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $683,000 after purchasing an additional 2,118 shares during the last quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP grew its position in Fortinet by 22.4% in the 2nd quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP now owns 2,163,093 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $130,370,000 after purchasing an additional 395,477 shares during the period. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise raised its stake in Fortinet by 71.1% during the 1st quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 72,384 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,945,000 after buying an additional 30,084 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PDS Planning Inc bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at $200,000. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,538 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.94, for a total value 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 $3,662,977,721.64. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,538 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.94, for a total value of $1,763,937.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,878,806 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,662,977,721.64. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. 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 the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction of $1,386,590.32. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 10,847,018 shares in the company, valued at $608,626,179.98. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 96,210 shares of company stock valued at $6,337,801 over the last ninety days. 18.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Fortinet Trading Up 0.4 %

FTNT stock opened at $77.78 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $73.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $65.85. Fortinet, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.12 and a fifty-two week high of $79.08. The firm has a market cap of $59.42 billion, a PE ratio of 50.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.32.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on FTNT shares. UBS Group upped their price objective on Fortinet from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $63.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $75.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Twenty-three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $72.11.

About Fortinet

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.