Avantax Advisory Services Inc. Acquires 1,496 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Avantax Advisory Services Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) by 11.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 14,235 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 1,496 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Fortinet were worth $1,345,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of FTNT. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $46,000. Private Trust Co. NA boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 95.0% during the 4th quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 630 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $60,000 after buying an additional 307 shares in the last quarter. R Squared Ltd bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $65,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 30.6% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 696 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $66,000 after purchasing an additional 163 shares in the last quarter. Finally, St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth $72,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Fortinet Stock Up 0.2 %

FTNT opened at $96.91 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $102.17 and a 200 day moving average of $92.08. The company has a market cap of $74.52 billion, a PE ratio of 42.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12 month low of $54.57 and a 12 month high of $114.82. 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 (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released 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%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Fortinet from $99.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Wedbush increased their target price on Fortinet from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Fortinet from $77.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Bank of America increased their target price on Fortinet from $87.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Fortinet from $97.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $105.69.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, Director Kenneth A. Goldman sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total value of $200,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 18,612 shares in the company, valued at $1,861,200. This represents a 9.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, 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 transaction of $2,150,466.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 49,039,698 shares in the company, valued at $4,576,384,617.36. This represents a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 599,988 shares of company stock worth $59,094,530 in the last three months. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.