Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Shares Up 0.6%

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) shares rose 0.6% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $71.00 and last traded at $70.81. Approximately 1,000,426 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 83% from the average daily volume of 5,895,960 shares. The stock had previously closed at $70.36.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on FTNT. Hsbc Global Res raised Fortinet from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Fortinet from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on shares of Fortinet from $72.00 to $67.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Twenty-three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $71.31.

Fortinet Trading Up 0.8 %

The company’s 50 day moving average price is $60.34 and its 200 day moving average price is $63.86. The company has a market cap of $56.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.58, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.98.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Fortinet by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,052,487 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,648,665,000 after acquiring an additional 779,271 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 664.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 35,137,089 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,400,215,000 after purchasing an additional 30,542,551 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,156,797 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $491,610,000 after purchasing an additional 134,366 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its stake in Fortinet by 198.5% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 6,238,856 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $376,016,000 after buying an additional 4,148,520 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in Fortinet by 94.9% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,755,599 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $346,890,000 after buying an additional 2,802,446 shares during the last quarter. 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.