Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. Acquires 272,582 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 96.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 555,572 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 272,582 shares during the quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. owned approximately 0.07% of Fortinet worth $52,490,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of FTNT. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at about $724,048,000. FMR LLC raised its stake in Fortinet by 276.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,685,230 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $285,790,000 after buying an additional 2,705,767 shares during the period. Amundi lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 36.7% in the fourth 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 last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 136.0% during the 4th 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 period. Finally, State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,281,279 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,115,663,000 after acquiring an additional 766,135 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FTNT has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Susquehanna increased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Mizuho upped their target price on Fortinet from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley began coverage on Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $123.00 price target for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $105.69.

Fortinet Trading Down 3.0 %

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $96.60 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $74.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.74, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $102.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $93.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.39. Fortinet, Inc. has a one year low of $54.57 and a one year high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 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%. Research analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total value of $2,150,466.08. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 49,039,698 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,576,384,617.36. This represents a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director William H. Neukom acquired 328 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $106.33 per share, with a total value of $34,876.24. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 300,006 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,899,637.98. This represents a 0.11 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 599,988 shares of company stock valued at $59,094,530. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

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.