Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Upgraded to Strong-Buy at Stephens

Stephens upgraded shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) to a strong-buy rating in a research report report published on Monday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on FTNT. Scotiabank increased their target price on Fortinet from $115.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $112.00 target price (up from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Monday, February 3rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Fortinet from $103.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $105.77.

Fortinet Price Performance

NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $96.67 on Monday. Fortinet has a 52 week low of $54.57 and a 52 week high of $114.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.47. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $103.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $93.68. The firm has a market cap of $74.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.77, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a net margin of 29.30% and a return on equity of 256.53%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Fortinet will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 326,784 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.17, for a total value of $32,080,385.28. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 11,000,068 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,079,876,675.56. The trade was a 2.89 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total value of $2,150,466.08. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 49,039,698 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,576,384,617.36. The trade was a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 599,988 shares of company stock worth $59,094,530 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Oarsman Capital Inc. increased its stake in Fortinet by 188.9% in the fourth quarter. Oarsman Capital Inc. now owns 416 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 272 shares in the last quarter. Graney & King LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at about $43,000. Banque Transatlantique SA bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth about $43,000. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at about $46,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.