Fortinet Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Stock investors purchased 27,985 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 127% compared to the average volume of 12,322 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FTNT has been the topic of several recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Fortinet from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Wedbush raised their target price on Fortinet from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. StockNews.com upgraded Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $115.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $88.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $99.63.

Fortinet Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of FTNT stock traded up $1.39 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $106.11. The company had a trading volume of 5,303,804 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,266,027. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.25. Fortinet has a 1-year low of $54.57 and a 1-year high of $110.53. The company has a 50 day moving average of $97.13 and a 200 day moving average of $84.21. The firm has a market cap of $81.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.01.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 973.30% and a net margin of 26.79%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 1.95 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 4,250 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.83, for a total transaction of $386,027.50. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $425,901.87. This trade represents a 47.54 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director William H. Neukom bought 355 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $98.50 per share, for a total transaction of $34,967.50. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 150,245 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,799,132.50. This represents a 0.24 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 67,860 shares of company stock worth $6,469,056. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Eastern Bank bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the third quarter worth about $25,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new stake in Fortinet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC raised its holdings in Fortinet by 73.3% during the 3rd quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 409 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 173 shares during the period. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Finally, City State Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 900.0% in the third 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

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.