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

Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the thirty-two research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $70.03.

A number of equities research analysts have commented on FTNT shares. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $85.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, June 11th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $78.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Wednesday, May 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price 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. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $82.00 to $70.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 3rd.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,992 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.75, for a total value of $1,553,482.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,660,648 shares in the company, valued at $3,150,776,958. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,992 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.75, for a total transaction of $1,553,482.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,660,648 shares in the company, valued at $3,150,776,958. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director William H. Neukom purchased 586 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 6th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $59.55 per share, with a total value of $34,896.30. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 295,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,613,579.90. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 91,638 shares of company stock valued at $5,705,568. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in Fortinet by 664.8% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 35,137,089 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,400,215,000 after purchasing an additional 30,542,551 shares during the period. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the first quarter valued at $548,013,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at about $203,501,000. Sarasin & Partners LLP bought a new position in Fortinet during the first quarter worth about $120,746,000. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 102.5% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 3,284,203 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $224,344,000 after buying an additional 1,662,156 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Stock Up 3.3 %

FTNT opened at $60.04 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $60.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $63.61. Fortinet has a 52 week low of $44.12 and a 52 week high of $81.24. The stock has a market cap of $45.87 billion, a PE ratio of 39.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.29 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Fortinet will post 1.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.