Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Upgraded at StockNews.com

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

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Mizuho lowered shares of Fortinet from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $68.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Thursday, October 17th. HSBC raised shares of Fortinet from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $59.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Rosenblatt Securities dropped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $68.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 5th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-two have given a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $73.25.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $80.34 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $61.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 1.00. Fortinet has a 52 week low of $44.12 and a 52 week high of $83.77. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $77.64 and a 200 day moving average of $67.06.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released 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 23.71% and a negative return on equity of 2,160.10%. The business had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.40 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.31 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Fortinet will post 1.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,307 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.89, for a total transaction of $1,908,610.23. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,915,530 shares in the company, valued at $4,005,692,751.70. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 10,847,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,307 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.89, for a total transaction of $1,908,610.23. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,915,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,005,692,751.70. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 95,250 shares of company stock worth $6,790,149 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of FTNT. Winthrop Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Eastern Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Oakworth Capital Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 61.2% in the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 627 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 238 shares during the period. Finally, City State Bank grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 900.0% in the 3rd quarter. City State Bank now owns 500 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 450 shares during the period. 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.