Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Upgraded to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report released on Friday morning.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $135.00 target price (up previously from $120.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Guggenheim reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $103.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $97.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have given a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $105.69.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of FTNT opened at $98.65 on Friday. 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 stock has a market cap of $75.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.65, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a 50-day moving average of $102.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $92.31. Fortinet has a 12-month low of $54.57 and a 12-month high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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, research analysts predict that Fortinet will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director William H. Neukom acquired 328 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $106.33 per share, for a total transaction of $34,876.24. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 300,006 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,899,637.98. The trade was a 0.11 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the 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 in the company, valued at $4,576,384,617.36. This trade represents a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 599,988 shares of company stock worth $59,094,530. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Norges Bank bought a new position in Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at $724,048,000. Schroder Investment Management Group bought a new position in Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at $389,867,000. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Fortinet by 77.2% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,531,705 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $617,115,000 after acquiring an additional 2,846,475 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Fortinet by 39.3% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $720,150,000 after acquiring an additional 2,151,811 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 72.6% in the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 4,906,439 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $463,561,000 after buying an additional 2,064,016 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.