Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Hits New 52-Week High – Here’s Why

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $83.78 and last traded at $83.69, with a volume of 3689443 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $80.87.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FTNT has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. HSBC raised Fortinet from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $59.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased 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, August 7th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $68.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Citigroup increased their price target on Fortinet from $66.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Fortinet from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have given a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $77.72.

Fortinet Stock Up 10.0 %

The company has a market capitalization of $70.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.46, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $78.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $68.13. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.16. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 2,160.10% and a net margin of 23.71%. The company had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.31 earnings per share. Fortinet’s revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,307 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.89, for a total value 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 $4,005,692,751.70. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 70,538 shares of company stock valued at $5,403,559. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,052,487 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $4,648,665,000 after buying an additional 779,271 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Fortinet by 664.8% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 35,137,089 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,400,215,000 after buying an additional 30,542,551 shares during the period. Swedbank AB raised its stake in Fortinet by 1.7% in the second quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,156,797 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $491,610,000 after buying an additional 134,366 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 198.5% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 6,238,856 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $376,016,000 after buying an additional 4,148,520 shares during the period. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position 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 acquiring an additional 2,802,446 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Fortinet Company Profile

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.