Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Rating Reaffirmed by Needham & Company LLC

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT)‘s stock had its “hold” rating reiterated by stock analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on FTNT. DZ Bank downgraded Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $60.00 price target for the company. in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Mizuho raised their price target on Fortinet from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Citigroup downgraded Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $60.00 to $62.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $86.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a report on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on Fortinet from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Two 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $70.68.

Fortinet Price Performance

FTNT opened at $58.88 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $67.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $61.90. Fortinet has a 1 year low of $44.12 and a 1 year high of $81.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.94 billion, a PE ratio of 38.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.08.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 5,061.85% and a net margin of 22.23%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.29 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.40, for a total transaction of $1,691,751.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,625,005 shares in the company, valued at $3,471,825,357. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total transaction of $1,593,300.80. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 10,867,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $700,705,320.64. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.40, for a total value of $1,691,751.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,625,005 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,471,825,357. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 118,480 shares of company stock worth $8,021,556. 17.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Fortinet by 156.8% during the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 9,441,059 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $554,945,000 after buying an additional 5,765,174 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $203,501,000. Sarasin & Partners LLP acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 1st quarter valued at $120,746,000. DSM Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 3rd quarter valued at $75,698,000. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 358.1% in the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 1,644,139 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $96,478,000 after purchasing an additional 1,285,197 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

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.