Carderock Capital Management Inc. Purchases 10,508 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Carderock Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 7.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 149,048 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,508 shares during the period. Fortinet makes up approximately 2.4% of Carderock Capital Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Carderock Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $8,724,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cito Capital Group LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet in the third quarter worth about $660,000. Alamar Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 12.5% during the third quarter. Alamar Capital Management LLC now owns 63,788 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $3,743,000 after buying an additional 7,110 shares during the period. Marshall Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,487,000. First Merchants Corp boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 27.7% during the third quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 104,974 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $6,160,000 after buying an additional 22,754 shares during the period. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 1.6% during the third quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,921,857 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $112,775,000 after buying an additional 30,129 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.40, for a total transaction of $1,691,751.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,625,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,471,825,357. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.40, for a total transaction of $1,691,751.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,625,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,471,825,357. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 38,369 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 154,880 shares of company stock valued at $10,233,981 over the last ninety days. 17.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $71.32 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $68.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $60.91. The company has a market cap of $54.42 billion, a PE ratio of 49.19, a PEG ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.12 and a 12-month high of $81.24.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 5th. The software maker reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $1.42 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 quarterly revenue was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.38 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on FTNT. DZ Bank lowered Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $60.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Mizuho boosted their target price on Fortinet from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Scotiabank boosted their target price on Fortinet from $70.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $75.00 price target (up previously from $50.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Fortinet from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have issued a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortinet currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $72.35.

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.