Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Rating Lowered to Hold at StockNews.com

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) was downgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on FTNT. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $135.00 price target (up from $120.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $99.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $112.00 price objective (up previously from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $103.72.

Fortinet Stock Down 0.4 %

FTNT stock opened at $101.28 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $77.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.81, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.47. Fortinet has a one year low of $54.57 and a one year high of $114.82. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $102.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $90.93.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Fortinet will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 22,916 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.93, for a total value of $2,244,163.88. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total transaction of $2,668,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 4,736 shares in the company, valued at $537,820.16. The trade was a 83.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 87,120 shares of company stock worth $8,991,409 in the last 90 days. 18.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FTNT. Castle Rock Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at $1,179,000. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH now owns 39,453 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $3,753,000 after purchasing an additional 864 shares during the period. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new stake in Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at $74,962,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 48.7% in the 4th quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 41,728 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $3,942,000 after purchasing an additional 13,669 shares during the period. Finally, Integrated Advisors Network LLC boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Integrated Advisors Network LLC now owns 79,687 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $7,529,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the period. 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.