Public Sector Pension Investment Board Buys 10,125 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 82.1% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 22,460 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,125 shares during the quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $1,354,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of FTNT. Focus Financial Network Inc. ADV bought a new stake in Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $260,000. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $200,000. Belpointe Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 52.4% during the fourth quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 11,659 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $682,000 after purchasing an additional 4,009 shares in the last quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth $263,000. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its holdings in Fortinet by 76.5% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 115,667 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $6,770,000 after purchasing an additional 50,139 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,538 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.94, for a total transaction 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 approximately $3,662,977,721.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction of $1,386,590.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 10,847,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $608,626,179.98. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,538 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,878,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,662,977,721.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 96,210 shares of company stock worth $6,337,801. 18.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FTNT has been the subject of several research reports. Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $61.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com upgraded Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Guggenheim downgraded Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised Fortinet from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Twenty-three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $71.57.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $76.49 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $58.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.00. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.12 and a 1-year high of $78.50. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $71.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $65.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 1.22.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.16. Fortinet had a net margin of 23.71% and a negative return on equity of 2,160.10%. The company had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.40 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.31 EPS. Fortinet’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.