Scotiabank Raises Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Price Target to $75.00

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price target lifted by equities researchers at Scotiabank from $61.00 to $75.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “sector outperform” rating on the software maker’s stock. Scotiabank’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 6.26% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Fortinet from $71.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $63.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-three have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $70.93.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT traded up $14.77 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $70.58. The stock had a trading volume of 16,584,027 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,839,768. Fortinet has a one year low of $44.12 and a one year high of $73.91. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $58.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $63.62. The stock has a market cap of $53.92 billion, a PE ratio of 46.13, a P/E/G ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.98.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.40 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 22.23% and a negative return on equity of 2,235.48%. Fortinet’s revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.31 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Fortinet will post 1.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction of $1,386,590.32. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,847,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $608,626,179.98. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 18,701 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.68, for a total transaction of $1,116,075.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,663 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $278,287.84. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction of $1,386,590.32. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,847,018 shares in the company, valued at $608,626,179.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 91,915 shares of company stock valued at $5,401,638 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. RPG Investment Advisory LLC grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 0.3% during the second quarter. RPG Investment Advisory LLC now owns 209,583 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $12,632,000 after purchasing an additional 609 shares during the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 46.0% during the 2nd quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 377,045 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $22,725,000 after buying an additional 118,761 shares during the period. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 433.2% during the second quarter. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. now owns 129,597 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $7,811,000 after buying an additional 105,291 shares during the last quarter. LGT Group Foundation lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 6.2% in the second quarter. LGT Group Foundation now owns 906,198 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $54,617,000 after buying an additional 52,712 shares during the period. Finally, Choreo LLC grew its holdings in Fortinet by 24.8% during the 2nd quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 19,789 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,185,000 after acquiring an additional 3,937 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.