Candriam S.C.A. Increases Stock Position in Fortinet, Inc. $FTNT

Candriam S.C.A. increased its stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 311.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 239,688 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 181,434 shares during the period. Candriam S.C.A.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $23,072,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC boosted its position in Fortinet by 2.5% during the first quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 6,918 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $666,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the period. GDS Wealth Management boosted its position in Fortinet by 145.4% during the first quarter. GDS Wealth Management now owns 49,659 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $4,780,000 after purchasing an additional 29,422 shares during the period. Erste Asset Management GmbH boosted its position in Fortinet by 462.1% during the first quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH now owns 158,510 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $15,440,000 after purchasing an additional 130,310 shares during the period. Decatur Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 46.1% in the first quarter. Decatur Capital Management Inc. now owns 43,371 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,175,000 after acquiring an additional 13,694 shares during the period. Finally, Credit Agricole S A raised its stake in Fortinet by 1.8% in the first quarter. Credit Agricole S A now owns 238,267 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $22,936,000 after purchasing an additional 4,327 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other news, Director William H. Neukom acquired 335 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 6th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $104.22 per share, with a total value of $34,913.70. Following the purchase, the director owned 301,471 shares in the company, valued at $31,419,307.62. This trade represents a 0.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total value of $15,607,701.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,391,879 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,061,072,243.92. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 17.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. DZ Bank raised shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $95.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $87.00 to $75.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $105.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $97.40.

Fortinet Stock Performance

FTNT stock opened at $79.61 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 1.24. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $97.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $100.47. The company has a market capitalization of $61.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.72, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.07. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $70.12 and a 1-year high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 111.46%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.57 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 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.