Victory Capital Management Inc. Boosts Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 9.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,492,200 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 133,003 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned 0.19% of Fortinet worth $140,983,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet during the third quarter valued at $26,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at $46,000. Private Trust Co. NA lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 95.0% during the fourth quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 630 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $60,000 after purchasing an additional 307 shares in the last quarter. R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at $65,000. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 30.6% during the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 696 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $66,000 after purchasing an additional 163 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Fortinet news, Director William H. Neukom acquired 355 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $98.50 per share, with a total value of $34,967.50. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 150,245 shares in the company, valued at $14,799,132.50. This trade represents a 0.24 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 22,916 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.93, for a total transaction of $2,244,163.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,983,683 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,796,972,076.19. This represents a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 87,120 shares of company stock valued at $8,991,409. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Fortinet Trading Up 0.3 %

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $106.80 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $101.69 and a 200-day simple moving average of $90.45. 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 one year low of $54.57 and a one year high of $114.82. The firm has a market cap of $82.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.26, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 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%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on FTNT. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $77.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $87.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortinet has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $103.72.

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.