Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Position Trimmed by Maryland State Retirement & Pension System

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System cut its position in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 6.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 33,703 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 2,385 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $3,184,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 13.5% during the 4th quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 843 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $80,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,833 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $646,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. Fielder Capital Group LLC grew its position in Fortinet by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Fielder Capital Group LLC now owns 6,904 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $652,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Fortinet by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC now owns 8,346 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $789,000 after purchasing an additional 114 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Truvestments Capital LLC grew its position in Fortinet by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC now owns 4,310 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $407,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In related news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total value of $2,668,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,736 shares in the company, valued at $537,820.16. This trade represents a 83.23 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Kenneth A. Goldman sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total transaction of $200,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 18,612 shares in the company, valued at $1,861,200. This represents a 9.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 599,988 shares of company stock worth $59,094,530. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $98.45 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $102.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $92.16. The company has a market cap of $75.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $54.57 and a 12-month high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $103.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $135.00 price objective (up from $120.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $99.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $105.69.

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.