Fundsmith Equity takes stake in cybersecurity firm Fortinet
Terry Smith (pictured), is the manager of the £22.3bn Fundsmith Equity fund.
Fortinet is a California-based developer of security solutions, including firewalls, endpoint security and intrusion detection systems, with a market capitalisation of $45.2bn, according to Morningstar Direct.
On Thursday (2 November), the firm's shares fell almost 20% in what Morningstar analyst Malik Ahmed Khan described as a «knee-jerk reaction» to its financial results, which revealed that the company had come short with its fourth-quarter revenue forecast.
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Despite this, Khan said the cybersecurity firm's «breadth and quality» of solutions will allow it to deliver shareholder value in the long term.
Run by manager Terry Smith, the £22.3bn fund posted negative performance in October, down 1.9%, but it was up 4.5% year-to-date, according to the factsheet. Since inception, the fund has returned 504.1% to investors, which translates to a 14.8% annualised return.
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Over the course of October, the biggest performance contributors to the portfolio were Microsoft, Novo Nordisk, Nike, L'Oréal and Procter & Gamble; whereas the biggest detractors were McCormick, Automatic Data Processing, Waters, IDEXX and Mattler-Toledo.
Last month, the fund also lost its long-held top spot as the most bought fund on interactive investor's platform, as it was overtaken by the Royal London Short Term Money Market fund.
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