Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Has $12.73 Million Stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 23.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 134,680 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 25,553 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $12,725,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Eagle Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 26,176 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,473,000 after purchasing an additional 404 shares in the last quarter. Global Trust Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Fortinet by 236.1% during the fourth quarter. Global Trust Asset Management LLC now owns 5,210 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $492,000 after buying an additional 3,660 shares in the last quarter. Barlow Wealth Partners Inc. lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Barlow Wealth Partners Inc. now owns 174,977 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $16,283,000 after buying an additional 6,851 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 39.1% during the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 160,481 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $15,162,000 after acquiring an additional 45,092 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Simon Quick Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at about $221,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortinet Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $96.90 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $74.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.00. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $54.57 and a 12-month high of $101.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $95.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $81.90.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The software maker reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.48 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 26.79% and a return on equity of 973.30%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.35 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director William H. Neukom bought 355 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $98.50 per share, for a total transaction of $34,967.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 150,245 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,799,132.50. This trade represents a 0.24 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 22,916 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.93, for a total transaction of $2,244,163.88. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,983,683 shares in the company, valued at $4,796,972,076.19. This trade represents a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 67,860 shares of company stock valued at $6,469,056. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on FTNT. Guggenheim restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday. KeyCorp raised shares of Fortinet from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $115.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortinet currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $96.83.

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.