StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT – Free Report) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report published on Friday.
A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Fortinet from $74.00 to $67.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 25th. Needham & Company LLC started coverage on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, October 25th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Fortinet from a buy rating to a hold rating and decreased their price target for the company from $85.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 19th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Fortinet from $88.00 to $72.00 and set a market perform rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 4th. Finally, Guggenheim raised Fortinet from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $70.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, August 7th. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $66.94.
Read Our Latest Research Report on Fortinet
Fortinet Stock Performance
Fortinet stock opened at $50.48 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.09. The stock has a market cap of $39.64 billion, a PE ratio of 34.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.14. Fortinet has a 12-month low of $44.12 and a 12-month high of $81.24. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $59.09 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $65.46.
Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 2nd. The software maker reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.35 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 21.24% and a negative return on equity of 698.28%. The firm’s revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.28 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Fortinet will post 1.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Insider Activity
In other Fortinet news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 5,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.20, for a total transaction of $291,720.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,578 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $261,861.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, Director William H. Neukom bought 552 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 8th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $63.28 per share, for a total transaction of $34,930.56. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 291,551 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,449,347.28. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 5,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.20, for a total transaction of $291,720.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,578 shares in the company, valued at $261,861.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 61,333 shares of company stock worth $3,505,054 over the last three months. 17.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Institutional Trading of Fortinet
A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of FTNT. North Star Investment Management Corp. increased its holdings in Fortinet by 85.1% during the first quarter. North Star Investment Management Corp. now owns 435 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 2nd quarter valued at $30,000. GeoWealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 2nd quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Resurgent Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. 65.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
About Fortinet
(Get Free Report)
Fortinet, Inc provides cybersecurity and networking solutions worldwide. It offers FortiGate hardware and software licenses that provide various security and networking functions, including firewall, intrusion prevention, anti-malware, virtual private network, application control, web filtering, anti-spam, and wide area network acceleration.
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