Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Rating Upgraded by StockNews.com

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) was upgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Friday.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. DZ Bank raised Fortinet from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on Fortinet from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $78.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Fortinet from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Fortinet from $63.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-two have assigned a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $73.25.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of FTNT opened at $80.34 on Friday. Fortinet has a 12 month low of $44.12 and a 12 month high of $83.77. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $77.64 and a 200-day moving average price of $67.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45. The firm has a market cap of $61.45 billion, a PE ratio of 47.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.00.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.16. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 2,160.10% and a net margin of 23.71%. The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.31 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Fortinet will post 1.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,307 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.89, for a total value of $1,908,610.23. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,915,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,005,692,751.70. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,307 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.89, for a total transaction of $1,908,610.23. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,915,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,005,692,751.70. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction of $1,386,590.32. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,847,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 95,250 shares of company stock valued at $6,790,149 in the last ninety days. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its holdings in Fortinet by 17.0% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 22,340 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,732,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241 shares during the last quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE acquired a new stake in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $248,000. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $218,000. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in Fortinet by 111.2% in the 3rd quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 9,702 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $752,000 after purchasing an additional 5,109 shares during the last quarter. Finally, abrdn plc grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 8.2% in the third quarter. abrdn plc now owns 260,612 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $20,128,000 after acquiring an additional 19,655 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

About Fortinet

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.