StockNews.com Upgrades Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) to Buy

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) was upgraded by StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Sunday.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on FTNT. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Fortinet from $67.00 to $63.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $81.00 to $75.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $80.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortinet currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $70.03.

Fortinet Trading Down 0.7 %

FTNT opened at $59.85 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $60.51 and its 200 day moving average price is $63.80. Fortinet has a twelve month low of $44.12 and a twelve month high of $81.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.72 billion, a PE ratio of 39.12, a PEG ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 0.98.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. Fortinet had a net margin of 22.23% and a negative return on equity of 2,235.48%. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.34 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.29 earnings per share. Fortinet’s quarterly revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Fortinet will post 1.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,867,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $700,705,320.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the firm’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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 10,867,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $700,705,320.64. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director William H. Neukom bought 586 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 6th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $59.55 per share, with a total value of $34,896.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 295,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,613,579.90. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 91,638 shares of company stock valued at $5,705,568. 18.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 1.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,052,487 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,648,665,000 after buying an additional 779,271 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 664.8% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 35,137,089 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,400,215,000 after buying an additional 30,542,551 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 1.3% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,664,124 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $508,411,000 after buying an additional 108,548 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the first quarter valued at $548,013,000. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 7.6% in the first quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 3,996,822 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $273,023,000 after buying an additional 283,339 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.