Meeder Advisory Services Inc. Increases Holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Meeder Advisory Services Inc. grew its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 2.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 13,369 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 316 shares during the period. Meeder Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $1,263,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Groupama Asset Managment raised its holdings in Fortinet by 40.8% during the fourth quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 26,520 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,523,000 after purchasing an additional 7,685 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,270,913 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,440,648,000 after buying an additional 387,901 shares during the last quarter. National Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth $530,000. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC lifted its position in Fortinet by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC now owns 41,878 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $3,957,000 after acquiring an additional 263 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in Fortinet by 155.2% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 998,626 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $94,345,000 after acquiring an additional 607,363 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 326,784 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.17, for a total transaction of $32,080,385.28. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 11,000,068 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,079,876,675.56. The trade was a 2.89 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total transaction of $2,150,466.08. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 49,039,698 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,576,384,617.36. The trade was a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 599,988 shares of company stock valued at $59,094,530. Insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Trading Up 1.5 %

Fortinet stock opened at $98.08 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $75.42 billion, a PE ratio of 43.40, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $102.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $93.71. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52 week low of $54.57 and a 52 week high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted 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 net margin of 29.30% and a return on equity of 256.53%. Equities research analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Fortinet from $97.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $112.00 target price (up previously from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortinet has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $105.77.

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.