Castellan Group Acquires Shares of 87,208 Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Castellan Group bought a new stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 87,208 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $8,239,000. Fortinet accounts for 3.6% of Castellan Group’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest holding.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Eastern Bank acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet during the third quarter worth $26,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC raised its position in Fortinet by 73.3% during the third quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 409 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 173 shares during the period. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $46,000. Finally, R Squared Ltd acquired a new position in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $65,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on FTNT shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $114.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $99.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $135.00 price objective (up from $120.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have issued a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $102.77.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 49,039,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,576,384,617.36. This represents a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director William H. Neukom bought 355 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the director now owns 150,245 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,799,132.50. This represents a 0.24 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 67,860 shares of company stock valued at $6,469,056 in the last 90 days. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $107.70 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $82.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.66, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.01. Fortinet, Inc. has a one year low of $54.57 and a one year high of $110.99. The company’s fifty day moving average is $98.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $85.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.34.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a net margin of 29.30% and a return on equity of 463.85%. Analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.