Alliancebernstein L.P. Trims Stock Position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Alliancebernstein L.P. decreased its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 6.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 989,717 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 72,200 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $93,508,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of FTNT. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $724,048,000. Schroder Investment Management Group purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at $389,867,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 39.3% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $720,150,000 after buying an additional 2,151,811 shares during the last quarter. Amundi raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 36.7% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 6,577,467 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $631,700,000 after buying an additional 1,766,860 shares during the period. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 136.0% in the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,919,952 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $275,877,000 after acquiring an additional 1,682,708 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other news, 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 value of $2,150,466.08. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 49,039,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,576,384,617.36. The trade was a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Kenneth A. Goldman sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total value of $200,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,861,200. This represents a 9.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 599,988 shares of company stock worth $59,094,530 in the last three months. 18.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $89.44 on Friday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $54.57 and a 1-year high of $114.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $68.78 billion, a PE ratio of 39.58, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $102.83 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $93.68.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FTNT has been the topic of a number of research reports. Susquehanna raised their price objective on Fortinet from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Robert W. Baird restated 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. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $115.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $103.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.