Moody Lynn & Lieberson LLC Makes New Investment in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Moody Lynn & Lieberson LLC bought a new position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 34,412 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $3,251,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Eastern Bank bought a new stake in Fortinet during the third quarter worth about $25,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC grew its position in Fortinet by 73.3% during the 3rd quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 409 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 173 shares during the last quarter. City State Bank increased its holdings in Fortinet by 900.0% during the 3rd quarter. City State Bank now owns 500 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Paladin Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet in the third quarter worth $46,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were 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 directly 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 legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director William H. Neukom bought 355 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $98.50 per share, with a total value of $34,967.50. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 150,245 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,799,132.50. This trade represents a 0.24 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold 67,860 shares of company stock worth $6,469,056 over the last quarter. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Fortinet Stock Performance

FTNT stock opened at $96.90 on Friday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $54.57 and a 1-year high of $101.00. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $95.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $81.74. The firm has a market cap of $74.27 billion, a PE ratio of 48.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The software maker reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.13. Fortinet had a return on equity of 973.30% and a net margin of 26.79%. The business had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.48 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.35 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on FTNT. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Fortinet from $90.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Guggenheim reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have issued a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $96.83.

Fortinet 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.