Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. Increases Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. grew its position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 57.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 260,882 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 95,414 shares during the period. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $24,648,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Eastern Bank purchased a new stake in Fortinet during the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC lifted its stake in Fortinet by 73.3% during the 3rd quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 409 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 173 shares during the period. City State Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 900.0% during the 3rd quarter. City State Bank now owns 500 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Paladin Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Fortinet during the 3rd quarter valued at $46,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on FTNT shares. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $88.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Fortinet from $99.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $96.83.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director William H. Neukom acquired 355 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $98.50 per share, with a total value of $34,967.50. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 150,245 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,799,132.50. This trade represents a 0.24 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 4,250 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.83, for a total value of $386,027.50. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $425,901.87. This trade represents a 47.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 67,860 shares of company stock worth $6,469,056. Insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Trading Up 1.1 %

FTNT opened at $98.24 on Thursday. Fortinet, Inc. has a one year low of $54.57 and a one year 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 stock has a market cap of $75.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.00. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $95.59 and its 200-day moving average price is $81.22.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The software maker reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.48 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 26.79% and a return on equity of 973.30%. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.35 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.95 EPS for the current year.

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.