Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. Buys 21,294 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. grew its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 110.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 40,582 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 21,294 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $3,834,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC raised its position in Fortinet by 276.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,685,230 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $285,790,000 after purchasing an additional 2,705,767 shares during the last quarter. Amundi increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 36.7% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 6,577,467 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $631,700,000 after buying an additional 1,766,860 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 136.0% during the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,919,952 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $275,877,000 after acquiring an additional 1,682,708 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 2.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,281,279 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,115,663,000 after acquiring an additional 766,135 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at about $69,381,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 326,784 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.17, for a total transaction of $32,080,385.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 11,000,068 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,079,876,675.56. The trade was a 2.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director William H. Neukom purchased 328 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was bought at an average price of $106.33 per share, for a total transaction of $34,876.24. Following the purchase, the director now owns 300,006 shares in the company, valued at $31,899,637.98. The trade was a 0.11 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 599,988 shares of company stock worth $59,094,530 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on FTNT shares. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Fortinet from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed 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. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $112.00 price target (up previously from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Fortinet from $103.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $105.69.

Fortinet Stock Up 2.3 %

Fortinet stock opened at $102.09 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1-year low of $54.57 and a 1-year high of $114.82. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $102.65 and a 200 day simple moving average of $92.89. The company has a market cap of $78.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97.

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

About Fortinet

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.