T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. Trims Stock Position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. trimmed its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 0.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 6,756,441 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 23,543 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. owned approximately 0.88% of Fortinet worth $638,349,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Oarsman Capital Inc. grew its stake in Fortinet by 188.9% during the 4th quarter. Oarsman Capital Inc. now owns 416 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 272 shares during the last quarter. Graney & King LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $43,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Finally, Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $56,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortinet Stock Up 1.8 %

FTNT stock opened at $94.37 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.39. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12 month low of $54.57 and a 12 month high of $114.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $72.57 billion, a PE ratio of 41.76, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.09. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $100.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $95.51.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. Equities analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 206,000 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.93, for a total value of $19,967,580.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 51,391,879 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,981,414,831.47. The trade was a 0.40 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 17,660 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $109.18, for a total value of $1,928,118.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,736 shares in the company, valued at approximately $517,076.48. This represents a 78.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 576,944 shares of company stock valued at $56,944,064. 18.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on FTNT. Scotiabank upped their price target 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. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com cut Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Stephens assumed coverage on Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $108.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have given a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortinet currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $105.10.

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.