Morgan Stanley Initiates Coverage on Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Investment analysts at Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) in a research note issued on Tuesday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage set an “overweight” rating and a $123.00 price target on the software maker’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 25.29% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on FTNT. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $87.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 7th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $88.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortinet presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $105.69.

Fortinet Stock Up 1.3 %

Fortinet stock opened at $98.17 on Tuesday. Fortinet has a twelve month low of $54.57 and a twelve month high of $114.82. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $102.21 and its 200-day simple moving average is $92.12. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $75.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.44, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 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, equities analysts expect that Fortinet will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 49,039,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,576,384,617.36. This represents a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Kenneth A. Goldman sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total transaction of $200,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,861,200. This trade represents a 9.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 599,988 shares of company stock valued at $59,094,530 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of FTNT. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $724,048,000. Schroder Investment Management Group purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at $389,867,000. FMR LLC increased 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 worth $617,115,000 after buying an additional 2,846,475 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased 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 worth $720,150,000 after buying an additional 2,151,811 shares during the period. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. increased its stake in Fortinet by 72.6% during 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 period. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.