United Asset Strategies Inc. Purchases 3,179 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

United Asset Strategies Inc. increased its stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 15.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 23,980 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,179 shares during the quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $1,404,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its position in Fortinet by 2.1% during the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 28,859,057 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,181,456,000 after acquiring an additional 595,952 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 25,395,593 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,687,787,000 after buying an additional 527,129 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,178,603 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,007,182,000 after buying an additional 147,048 shares in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 125,937.5% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 14,597,668 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $713,680,000 after buying an additional 14,586,086 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 156.8% in the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 9,441,059 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $554,945,000 after buying an additional 5,765,174 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 38,369 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.45, for a total transaction of $2,549,620.05. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 29,887,018 shares in the company, valued at $1,985,992,346.10. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 38,369 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.45, for a total transaction of $2,549,620.05. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 29,887,018 shares in the company, valued at $1,985,992,346.10. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.40, for a total value of $1,691,751.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,625,005 shares in the company, valued at $3,471,825,357. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 108,147 shares of company stock worth $7,424,394. Insiders own 17.54% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on FTNT shares. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. DZ Bank downgraded shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $60.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Thursday, February 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Fortinet from $60.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, Capital One Financial cut shares of Fortinet from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $72.35.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Fortinet stock opened at $64.48 on Wednesday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.12 and a 12-month high of $81.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $68.83 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $61.48. The stock has a market cap of $49.20 billion, a PE ratio of 44.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.08.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its earnings results on Monday, February 5th. The software maker reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $1.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.41 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 7,572.46% and a net margin of 21.64%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.38 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.