American Century Companies Inc. Acquires 61,948 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 14.8% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 480,525 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 61,948 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $28,961,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of FTNT. Vima LLC bought a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Winthrop Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the first quarter worth about $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 135.6% in the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 377 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 217 shares during the period. Creekmur Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Oakworth Capital Inc. bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Stock Down 1.2 %

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $74.68 on Thursday. Fortinet, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.12 and a 52 week high of $78.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $57.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.81, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45. The company has a fifty day moving average of $67.90 and a two-hundred day moving average of $65.07.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.16. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 2,160.10% and a net margin of 23.71%. The business had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.40 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.31 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,538 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.94, for a total transaction of $1,763,937.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,878,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,662,977,721.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,538 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.94, for a total transaction of $1,763,937.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,878,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,662,977,721.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total value of $1,386,590.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 10,847,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 96,210 shares of company stock worth $6,337,801 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on FTNT. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Fortinet from $68.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. HSBC upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $59.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Barclays cut their price target on Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Fortinet from $73.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded Fortinet from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Twenty-three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Fortinet has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $71.57.

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.