Fortinet’s (FTNT) Outperform Rating Reiterated at Wedbush

Wedbush reaffirmed their outperform rating on shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) in a research note released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $86.00 price objective on the software maker’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on FTNT. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, January 18th. They set a market perform rating and a $65.00 price target for the company. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Susquehanna reissued a neutral rating and set a $80.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Fortinet from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $70.68.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Fortinet stock opened at $58.88 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $44.94 billion, a PE ratio of 40.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $67.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $61.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.06. Fortinet has a 12 month low of $44.12 and a 12 month high of $81.24.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.34 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 21.64% and a negative return on equity of 7,572.46%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.29 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Fortinet will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.07, for a total transaction of $3,183,021.88. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 51,813,638 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,578,767,976.66. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.07, for a total value of $3,183,021.88. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 51,813,638 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,578,767,976.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total value of $1,593,300.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 10,867,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $700,705,320.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 118,480 shares of company stock worth $8,021,556. Company insiders own 17.54% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vima LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC increased its position in Fortinet by 135.6% during the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 377 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 217 shares during the period. Headinvest LLC bought a new position in Fortinet during the third quarter worth $29,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. bought a new position in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Institutional investors 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.