Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Reaches New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $83.32 and last traded at $83.32, with a volume of 3895 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $82.87.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on FTNT shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $71.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Guggenheim lowered shares of Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $78.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $68.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Twenty-three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $72.64.

Fortinet Trading Down 0.4 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.32. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $74.98 and its 200-day simple moving average is $66.16. The stock has a market cap of $63.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 1.00.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.40 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 23.71% and a negative return on equity of 2,160.10%. Fortinet’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.31 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other 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 in the company, valued at $608,626,179.98. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction of $1,386,590.32. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 10,847,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,538 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.94, for a total transaction of $1,763,937.72. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,878,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,662,977,721.64. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 71,943 shares of company stock worth $4,881,539 in the last quarter. 18.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vima LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Winthrop Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 135.6% in the 1st quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 377 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Oakworth Capital Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 2nd quarter worth about $33,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.