Guggenheim Reiterates Neutral Rating for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at Guggenheim in a research report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price objective on Fortinet from $88.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $105.00 target price (up from $85.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, HSBC raised Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $83.00 to $111.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have issued a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $96.83.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of FTNT stock traded down $0.53 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $96.92. The company had a trading volume of 1,490,345 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,913,979. The firm has a market cap of $74.28 billion, a PE ratio of 48.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $95.65 and a 200-day moving average price of $81.33. Fortinet has a one year low of $54.57 and a one year high of $101.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.34.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The software maker reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.13. Fortinet had a net margin of 26.79% and a return on equity of 973.30%. The business had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.48 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.35 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Fortinet will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total value of $2,150,466.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 49,039,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,576,384,617.36. The trade was a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director William H. Neukom purchased 355 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $98.50 per share, with a total value of $34,967.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 150,245 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,799,132.50. The trade was a 0.24 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold 67,860 shares of company stock worth $6,469,056 over the last three months. 18.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Eastern Bank purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the third quarter worth $26,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 73.3% during the third quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 409 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 173 shares during the period. City State Bank grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 900.0% during the third quarter. City State Bank now owns 500 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Paladin Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 3rd quarter valued at $46,000. 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.