Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Hits New 1-Year High – Should You Buy?

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $83.78 and last traded at $83.69, with a volume of 3689443 shares. The stock had previously closed at $80.87.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FTNT has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Fortinet from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Fortinet from $73.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on shares of Fortinet from $72.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Fortinet from $71.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $74.68.

Fortinet Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 1.22. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $78.28 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $67.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $64.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.85, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.00.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.40 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 23.71% and a negative return on equity of 2,160.10%. Fortinet’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.31 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,538 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.94, for a total value of $1,763,937.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,878,806 shares in the company, valued at $3,662,977,721.64. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 70,538 shares of company stock worth $5,403,559. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of FTNT. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the first quarter worth about $190,000. GSA Capital Partners LLP bought a new stake in Fortinet during the 1st quarter worth approximately $569,000. Signaturefd LLC raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 42.0% in the first quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 15,084 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,030,000 after purchasing an additional 4,461 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 3.5% in the first quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 23,016 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,572,000 after purchasing an additional 770 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 12.4% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 29,500 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,015,000 after buying an additional 3,258 shares during the last quarter. 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.