Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Earns “Outperform” Rating from Wedbush

Wedbush restated their outperform rating on shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) in a report published on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. Wedbush currently has a $78.00 price target on the software maker’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $81.00 to $75.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. HSBC upgraded shares of Fortinet from a reduce rating to a hold rating and set a $59.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Fortinet from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $75.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Guggenheim lowered shares of Fortinet from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Scotiabank reduced their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a sector outperform rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Twenty-three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $71.31.

Fortinet Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of FTNT stock traded up $1.01 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $69.69. 6,988,618 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,926,143. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $59.59 and a 200 day simple moving average of $63.74. Fortinet has a 52-week low of $44.12 and a 52-week high of $73.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $53.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.98.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, Director William H. Neukom acquired 586 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $59.55 per share, for a total transaction of $34,896.30. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 295,778 shares in the company, valued at $17,613,579.90. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director William H. Neukom bought 586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 6th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $59.55 per share, for a total transaction of $34,896.30. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 295,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,613,579.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 10,847,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 91,915 shares of company stock worth $5,401,638. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 6.6% in the second quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 114,634 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $6,909,000 after purchasing an additional 7,086 shares during the last quarter. Alpha Family Trust purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the second quarter worth approximately $226,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 15.0% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 5,026,394 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $302,941,000 after acquiring an additional 657,400 shares during the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 38.1% during the 2nd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 22,468 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,354,000 after acquiring an additional 6,193 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 2nd quarter worth $7,283,000. Hedge funds and other 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.