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

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) was downgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Tuesday.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on FTNT. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $123.00 price objective for the company. Susquehanna lifted their target price on Fortinet from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Stephens started coverage on Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $108.00 target price for the company. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on Fortinet from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortinet has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $105.77.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $98.08 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $75.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.40, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $102.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $93.71. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. Fortinet has a 12 month low of $54.57 and a 12 month high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. Sell-side analysts predict that Fortinet will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 326,784 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.17, for a total transaction of $32,080,385.28. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 11,000,068 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,079,876,675.56. The trade was a 2.89 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total value of $2,668,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 4,736 shares in the company, valued at approximately $537,820.16. This represents a 83.23 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 599,988 shares of company stock valued at $59,094,530. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. purchased a new position in Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Oarsman Capital Inc. increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 188.9% during the 4th quarter. Oarsman Capital Inc. now owns 416 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 272 shares in the last quarter. Graney & King LLC purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Banque Transatlantique SA purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth about $43,000. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.