Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Upgraded to “Buy” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Friday.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on Fortinet from $72.00 to $67.00 and set an in-line rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Wedbush restated an outperform rating and issued a $86.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $66.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $70.37.

Fortinet Stock Down 0.1 %

Fortinet stock opened at $58.81 on Friday. Fortinet has a one year low of $44.12 and a one year high of $81.24. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $67.53 and a 200 day moving average of $61.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.20. The stock has a market cap of $44.89 billion, a PE ratio of 38.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.08.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.34 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 22.23% and a negative return on equity of 2,235.48%. Fortinet’s revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.29 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Fortinet will post 1.4 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 156.8% in 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 in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 1.3% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,664,124 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $508,411,000 after acquiring an additional 108,548 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Fortinet by 5.1% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,595,608 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $328,350,000 after purchasing an additional 269,202 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Fortinet by 4.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,789,106 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $222,345,000 after purchasing an additional 153,119 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $203,501,000. Hedge funds and other 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.