Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Shares Sold by Empirical Finance LLC

Empirical Finance LLC decreased its position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 1.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 21,383 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 274 shares during the quarter. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $2,020,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Eastern Bank acquired a new stake in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC lifted its stake in Fortinet by 73.3% during the third quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 409 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $46,000. Finally, City State Bank grew its position in Fortinet by 900.0% in the third quarter. City State Bank now owns 500 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other news, Director William H. Neukom purchased 355 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $98.50 per share, for a total transaction of $34,967.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 150,245 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,799,132.50. This represents a 0.24 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 67,860 shares of company stock valued at $6,469,056. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group raised their price objective on Fortinet from $70.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. StockNews.com upgraded Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $105.00 price objective (up previously from $85.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. HSBC upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $83.00 to $111.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $101.43.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $107.66 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $82.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.64, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.01. Fortinet, Inc. has a one year low of $54.57 and a one year high of $110.53. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $97.38 and a 200 day simple moving average of $84.94. 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 issued its earnings results 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 463.85%. Sell-side analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.05 EPS for the current 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.