StockNews.com Upgrades Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) to “Buy”

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report released on Sunday.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on FTNT. Truist Financial cut their price target on Fortinet from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Fortinet from $81.00 to $75.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Wedbush reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $78.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Wednesday, May 22nd. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Fortinet from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a sector outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on Fortinet from $80.00 to $75.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $70.03.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $61.01 on Friday. Fortinet has a twelve month low of $44.12 and a twelve month high of $81.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $46.61 billion, a PE ratio of 39.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 0.98. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $60.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $63.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.34 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 2,235.48% and a net margin of 22.23%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.29 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 1.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,235 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.53, for a total transaction of $1,442,709.55. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,742,483 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,901,640,012.99. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,235 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.53, for a total transaction of $1,442,709.55. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,742,483 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,901,640,012.99. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total value of $1,593,300.80. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,867,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $700,705,320.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 91,638 shares of company stock valued at $5,705,568 in the last 90 days. 18.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. TFO Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in Fortinet by 72,668.0% during the 4th quarter. TFO Wealth Partners LLC now owns 18,192 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,065,000 after purchasing an additional 18,167 shares in the last quarter. Cito Capital Group LLC bought a new position in Fortinet during the 3rd quarter worth about $660,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its holdings in Fortinet by 7.3% during the 4th quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 507,306 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $29,693,000 after purchasing an additional 34,582 shares in the last quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. increased its holdings in Fortinet by 2,092.4% during the 4th quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 40,603 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,411,000 after purchasing an additional 38,751 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LGT Group Foundation increased its holdings in Fortinet by 14.4% during the 4th quarter. LGT Group Foundation now owns 748,784 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $44,478,000 after purchasing an additional 94,475 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

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.