Park Avenue Securities LLC Has $2.32 Million Stock Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Park Avenue Securities LLC grew its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 27.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 24,057 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 5,171 shares during the quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $2,316,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC increased its position in Fortinet by 13.5% in the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 843 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $80,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Fielder Capital Group LLC boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Fielder Capital Group LLC now owns 6,904 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $652,000 after buying an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC now owns 8,346 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $789,000 after buying an additional 114 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 9,390 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $902,000 after buying an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Evergreen Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 6,240 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $590,000 after purchasing an additional 124 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on FTNT shares. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Fortinet in a research note on Monday, May 12th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Wall Street Zen raised Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Fortinet from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 8th. DZ Bank raised Fortinet from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, KeyCorp decreased their price objective on Fortinet from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortinet has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $104.80.

Fortinet Stock Down 0.4%

Fortinet stock opened at $101.63 on Wednesday. Fortinet, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $54.57 and a fifty-two week high of $114.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.47. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $100.51 and a 200 day moving average price of $99.95. The company has a market capitalization of $77.79 billion, a PE ratio of 44.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.06.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The software maker reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.54 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 29.30% and a return on equity of 256.53%. The firm’s revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.43 EPS. Research analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,488 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.10, for a total value of $16,815,576.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 51,391,879 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,452,678,361.90. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director William H. Neukom acquired 335 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 6th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $104.22 per share, for a total transaction of $34,913.70. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 301,471 shares in the company, valued at $31,419,307.62. This represents a 0.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 17.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Fortinet

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.