Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Now Covered by Stephens

Stephens initiated coverage on shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm issued an equal weight rating and a $108.00 target price on the software maker’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also issued reports on FTNT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $99.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $112.00 price objective (up previously from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Fortinet from $97.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have assigned a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $105.77.

Fortinet Stock Up 0.4 %

FTNT stock opened at $96.67 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $103.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $93.68. Fortinet has a 12 month low of $54.57 and a 12 month high of $114.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $74.34 billion, a PE ratio of 42.77, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97.

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

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other news, Director Kenneth A. Goldman sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total transaction of $200,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 18,612 shares in the company, valued at $1,861,200. This trade represents a 9.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total value of $2,668,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $537,820.16. This represents a 83.23 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 599,988 shares of company stock valued at $59,094,530. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB raised its holdings in Fortinet by 25.4% in the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 20,408 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,964,000 after acquiring an additional 4,135 shares in the last quarter. Mascagni Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at about $551,000. Fairtree Asset Management Pty Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at about $633,000. 111 Capital acquired a new position in Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth about $2,195,000. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC increased its holdings in Fortinet by 23.9% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 93,331 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $8,818,000 after buying an additional 18,008 shares during the last quarter. 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.