The Goldman Sachs Group Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price objective hoisted by equities researchers at The Goldman Sachs Group from $114.00 to $130.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the software maker’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price target points to a potential upside of 21.14% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $82.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $77.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $87.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have issued a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $100.83.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ FTNT traded up $2.59 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $107.31. The company had a trading volume of 7,887,592 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,365,490. Fortinet has a 1-year low of $54.57 and a 1-year high of $110.53. The company has a market cap of $82.25 billion, a PE ratio of 54.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.01. The business has a 50 day moving average of $97.13 and a 200-day moving average of $84.21. 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, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a net margin of 26.79% and a return on equity of 973.30%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Fortinet will post 1.95 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total transaction 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. This trade represents a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 17,650 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.66, for a total transaction of $1,688,399.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $448,549.74. This represents a 79.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 67,860 shares of company stock worth $6,469,056. 18.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. AlphaQuest LLC grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 180.8% during the 4th quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 9,495 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $897,000 after buying an additional 6,114 shares during the period. Personal CFO Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $274,000. Amundi grew its holdings in Fortinet by 36.7% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 6,577,467 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $631,700,000 after purchasing an additional 1,766,860 shares during the period. Permanent Capital Management LP acquired a new position in Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $345,000. Finally, Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC grew its holdings in Fortinet by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 6,748 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $638,000 after purchasing an additional 346 shares during the period. 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.