Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) in a research report released on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage issued an overweight rating and a $123.00 price target on the software maker’s stock.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on the company. Raymond James restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $105.00 price objective (up from $85.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $77.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Guggenheim reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $105.69.

Fortinet Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of FTNT opened at $96.91 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $102.17 and a 200-day moving average price of $92.08. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $74.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.88, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. Fortinet has a 12-month low of $54.57 and a 12-month high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a net margin of 29.30% and a return on equity of 256.53%. Equities research analysts expect that Fortinet will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Kenneth A. Goldman sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total value of $200,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 18,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,861,200. This represents a 9.70 % 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, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 49,039,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,576,384,617.36. This represents a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 599,988 shares of company stock worth $59,094,530 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,782 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $293,000 after purchasing an additional 141 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Fortinet by 2.2% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 175,073 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $13,577,000 after buying an additional 3,836 shares in the last quarter. Claro Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet in the third quarter worth about $487,000. Aviance Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 3rd quarter worth about $236,000. Finally, Pathstone Holdings LLC grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 58,352 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,525,000 after acquiring an additional 2,196 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is 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.