Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Raised 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 published on Sunday morning.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on FTNT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Fortinet from $67.00 to $63.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Susquehanna decreased their target price on Fortinet from $80.00 to $65.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Mizuho decreased their target price on Fortinet from $70.00 to $66.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Fortinet from $81.00 to $73.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on Fortinet from $71.00 to $68.00 and set a sector perform rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $70.03.

Fortinet Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $61.01 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $60.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $63.82. The company has a market capitalization of $46.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.88, a PEG ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 0.98. Fortinet has a 12-month low of $44.12 and a 12-month high of $81.24.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.34 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 2,235.48% and a net margin of 22.23%. Fortinet’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.29 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Fortinet will post 1.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total value of $1,593,300.80. Following the sale, 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 can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total value of $1,593,300.80. Following the sale, 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 can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,992 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,660,648 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,150,776,958. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 91,638 shares of company stock worth $5,705,568. 18.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. TFO Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in Fortinet by 72,668.0% in the 4th quarter. TFO Wealth Partners LLC now owns 18,192 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,065,000 after buying an additional 18,167 shares during the last quarter. Cito Capital Group LLC acquired a new stake in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter worth about $660,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its stake in Fortinet by 7.3% in the 4th quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 507,306 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $29,693,000 after buying an additional 34,582 shares during the last quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. boosted its stake in Fortinet by 2,092.4% in the 4th quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 40,603 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,411,000 after buying an additional 38,751 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LGT Group Foundation raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 14.4% in the 4th quarter. LGT Group Foundation now owns 748,784 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $44,478,000 after purchasing an additional 94,475 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.