Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Cut to “Hold” at Baird R W

Baird R W cut shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Monday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on FTNT. StockNews.com raised Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $115.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $100.00 to $120.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. One equities 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $97.73.

Fortinet Price Performance

FTNT stock opened at $105.07 on Monday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $96.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $84.07. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The stock has a market cap of $80.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.07, a PEG ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.01. Fortinet has a fifty-two week low of $54.57 and a fifty-two week high of $105.12.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The software maker reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.48 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.35 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 22,916 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.93, for a total transaction of $2,244,163.88. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,983,683 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,796,972,076.19. This trade represents a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 17,650 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $448,549.74. The trade was a 79.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 67,860 shares of company stock valued at $6,469,056 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Eastern Bank purchased a new position in Fortinet during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 73.3% in the 3rd 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. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at $46,000. Finally, City State Bank grew its position in 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 acquiring an additional 450 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

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.