Allstate Corp Buys Shares of 19,264 Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Allstate Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 19,264 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $1,820,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 16.0% in the fourth quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 4,428 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $418,000 after acquiring an additional 612 shares in the last quarter. DnB Asset Management AS boosted its stake in Fortinet by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 118,029 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $11,151,000 after purchasing an additional 5,157 shares in the last quarter. denkapparat Operations GmbH acquired a new stake in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $324,000. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its position in Fortinet by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 2,890,985 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $273,140,000 after purchasing an additional 38,654 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Fortinet by 96.3% during the 4th quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 555,572 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $52,490,000 after purchasing an additional 272,582 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In related news, Director Kenneth A. Goldman sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total value of $200,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 18,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,861,200. This trade represents a 9.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director William H. Neukom acquired 328 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $106.33 per share, for a total transaction of $34,876.24. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 300,006 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,899,637.98. The trade was a 0.11 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 599,988 shares of company stock valued at $59,094,530. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on FTNT. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $135.00 price target (up previously from $120.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Fortinet from $103.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Fortinet from $99.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $112.00 price target (up previously from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Monday, February 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have given a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $105.69.

Fortinet Price Performance

NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $96.60 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $74.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $102.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of $93.26. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12 month low of $54.57 and a 12 month high of $114.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. On average, analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 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.