J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Acquires 5,091 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 99.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,205 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 5,091 shares during the quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $791,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sarasin & Partners LLP boosted its stake in Fortinet by 22.4% in the 2nd quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP now owns 2,163,093 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $130,370,000 after purchasing an additional 395,477 shares during the period. PDS Planning Inc bought a new stake in Fortinet during the first quarter worth about $200,000. Forsta AP Fonden boosted its position in Fortinet by 11.8% during the third quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 135,500 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $10,508,000 after purchasing an additional 14,300 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its stake in Fortinet by 543.5% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 157,319 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $10,765,000 after purchasing an additional 132,871 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 10.5% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 138,893 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $9,488,000 after purchasing an additional 13,178 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. HSBC raised shares of Fortinet from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $59.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $63.00 to $70.00 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 report on Friday, October 25th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Fortinet from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, DZ Bank raised Fortinet from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $65.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, August 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-two have issued a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $74.07.

Fortinet Stock Down 1.7 %

FTNT stock opened at $79.37 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $60.71 billion, a PE ratio of 46.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.12 and a 52 week high of $83.77. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $77.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $67.22.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 23.71% and a negative return on equity of 2,160.10%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.31 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,307 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.89, for a total value of $1,908,610.23. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,915,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,005,692,751.70. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,307 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.89, for a total value of $1,908,610.23. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,915,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,005,692,751.70. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total value of $1,386,590.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 10,847,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 95,250 shares of company stock worth $6,790,149 over the last three months. Insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

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.