Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Rating Reaffirmed by Cantor Fitzgerald

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reissued by investment analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald in a research report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $65.00 price objective on the software maker’s stock. Cantor Fitzgerald’s price target points to a potential upside of 1.51% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on FTNT. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Wedbush upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $75.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Capital One Financial lowered shares of Fortinet from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $85.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $65.00 price objective for the company. Two research analysts have 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.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $72.19.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $64.03 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $68.64 and its 200-day moving average price is $61.52. Fortinet has a 1-year low of $44.12 and a 1-year high of $81.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 5th. The software maker reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.08. Fortinet had a net margin of 21.64% and a negative return on equity of 7,572.46%. The firm had revenue of $1.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.41 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.38 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 38,369 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.45, for a total value of $2,549,620.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 29,887,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,985,992,346.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,992 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.75, for a total value of $1,553,482.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,660,648 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,150,776,958. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 38,369 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.45, for a total transaction of $2,549,620.05. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 29,887,018 shares in the company, valued at $1,985,992,346.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 132,139 shares of company stock valued at $8,977,876. Company insiders own 17.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Eagle Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,714,000. Oak Thistle LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at $466,000. Aviance Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at $205,000. Financial Partners Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at $1,182,000. Finally, Trilogy Capital Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at $415,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.