Kesler Norman & Wride LLC Acquires Shares of 3,210 Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Kesler Norman & Wride LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 3,210 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $249,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Fortinet by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,052,487 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,648,665,000 after acquiring an additional 779,271 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Fortinet by 664.8% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 35,137,089 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,400,215,000 after acquiring an additional 30,542,551 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB lifted its position in Fortinet by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,156,797 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $491,610,000 after acquiring an additional 134,366 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its position in Fortinet by 198.5% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 6,238,856 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $376,016,000 after acquiring an additional 4,148,520 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in Fortinet by 94.9% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,755,599 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $346,890,000 after acquiring an additional 2,802,446 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,267 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.01, for a total value of $1,456,262.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,777,294 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,927,125,412.94. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction of $1,386,590.32. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,847,018 shares in the company, valued at $608,626,179.98. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,267 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.01, for a total transaction of $1,456,262.67. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,777,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,927,125,412.94. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 96,210 shares of company stock worth $6,337,801. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Fortinet Price Performance

FTNT stock opened at $77.78 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $73.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $65.85. The stock has a market cap of $59.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.00. Fortinet, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.12 and a 1 year high of $79.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 1.22.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly 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 net margin of 23.71% and a negative return on equity of 2,160.10%. The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.40 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.31 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $74.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $71.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Guggenheim lowered shares of Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Twenty-three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $72.11.

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.