Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the thirty-two research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have given a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $103.72.

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on FTNT. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $77.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, HSBC raised shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $83.00 to $111.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th.

Fortinet Price Performance

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $107.70 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. Fortinet has a 12-month low of $54.57 and a 12-month high of $110.99. The company has a market capitalization of $82.55 billion, a PE ratio of 47.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.01. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $98.12 and its 200-day moving average is $85.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a net margin of 29.30% and a return on equity of 463.85%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 49,039,698 shares in the company, valued at $4,576,384,617.36. This represents a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 4,250 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.83, for a total transaction of $386,027.50. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 4,689 shares in the company, valued at $425,901.87. The trade was a 47.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 67,860 shares of company stock worth $6,469,056. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 95.0% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 76,564 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $5,938,000 after acquiring an additional 37,294 shares during the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 24.0% in the third quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 5,407 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $419,000 after acquiring an additional 1,045 shares during the last quarter. Perpetual Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 98.7% in the third quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 24,264 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,882,000 after acquiring an additional 12,054 shares during the last quarter. ORBA Wealth Advisors L.L.C. lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 30.8% in the third quarter. ORBA Wealth Advisors L.L.C. now owns 19,503 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,512,000 after acquiring an additional 4,591 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JGP Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 3.4% in the third quarter. JGP Wealth Management LLC now owns 16,035 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,244,000 after acquiring an additional 532 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortinet Company Profile

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.