Franklin Resources Inc. Buys 607,363 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 155.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 998,626 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 607,363 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. owned 0.13% of Fortinet worth $94,345,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of FTNT. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Fortinet by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,115,470 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $6,435,550,000 after buying an additional 730,994 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. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 2.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,883,012 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,151,097,000 after acquiring an additional 354,692 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth about $724,048,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in Fortinet by 39.3% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $720,150,000 after purchasing an additional 2,151,811 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortinet Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $98.08 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $102.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $93.71. Fortinet, Inc. has a one year low of $54.57 and a one year high of $114.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $75.42 billion, a PE ratio of 43.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its 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 return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on FTNT. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. KeyCorp raised Fortinet from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $115.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Raymond James restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $123.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortinet has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $105.77.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other news, Director William H. Neukom bought 328 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $106.33 per share, for a total transaction of $34,876.24. Following the purchase, the director now owns 300,006 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,899,637.98. This trade represents a 0.11 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total value of $2,668,660.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,736 shares in the company, valued at approximately $537,820.16. This trade represents a 83.23 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 599,988 shares of company stock valued at $59,094,530. 18.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Fortinet Company 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.