Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Price Target Raised to $85.00

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its target price boosted by Barclays from $74.00 to $85.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the software maker’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on FTNT. Scotiabank boosted their target price on Fortinet from $61.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a sector outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Fortinet from $73.00 to $69.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Piper Sandler raised Fortinet from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $66.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Twenty-three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $72.64.

Fortinet Stock Performance

FTNT opened at $82.48 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45. The business’s 50 day moving average is $74.45 and its 200-day moving average is $66.07. The stock has a market cap of $63.01 billion, a PE ratio of 53.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.00. Fortinet has a twelve month low of $44.12 and a twelve month high of $82.50.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.16. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 2,160.10% and a net margin of 23.71%. The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.31 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Fortinet will post 1.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,538 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.94, for a total transaction of $1,763,937.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,878,806 shares in the company, valued at $3,662,977,721.64. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total value of $1,386,590.32. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 10,847,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,538 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.94, for a total value of $1,763,937.72. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,878,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,662,977,721.64. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 96,210 shares of company stock valued at $6,337,801. 18.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Fortinet by 664.8% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 35,137,089 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,400,215,000 after buying an additional 30,542,551 shares during the period. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at $548,013,000. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 198.5% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 6,238,856 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $376,016,000 after purchasing an additional 4,148,520 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 94.9% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,755,599 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $346,890,000 after purchasing an additional 2,802,446 shares during the period. Finally, Sarasin & Partners LLP acquired a new stake in Fortinet in the 1st quarter worth $120,746,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.