Wedbush Reaffirms Outperform Rating for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Wedbush reiterated their outperform rating on shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) in a research report released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $86.00 price objective on the software maker’s stock.

FTNT has been the subject of several other reports. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. They issued a market perform rating and a $65.00 price target for the company. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a neutral rating and set a $75.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Fortinet from $60.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on Fortinet from $60.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a neutral rating and set a $65.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have issued a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $72.19.

Fortinet Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $63.53 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.19. Fortinet has a 52-week low of $44.12 and a 52-week high of $81.24. The company has a market capitalization of $48.49 billion, a PE ratio of 43.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a fifty day moving average of $67.78 and a 200-day moving average of $61.87.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its earnings results on Monday, February 5th. The software maker reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $1.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.41 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 7,572.46% and a net margin of 21.64%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.38 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Fortinet will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.07, for a total value of $3,183,021.88. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 51,813,638 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,578,767,976.66. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.07, for a total transaction of $3,183,021.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 51,813,638 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,578,767,976.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 38,369 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.45, for a total value of $2,549,620.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 29,887,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,985,992,346.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 132,139 shares of company stock worth $8,977,876 over the last three months. 17.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in Fortinet by 156.8% in the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 9,441,059 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $554,945,000 after purchasing an additional 5,765,174 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 1.3% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,664,124 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $508,411,000 after acquiring an additional 108,548 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 5.1% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,595,608 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $328,350,000 after acquiring an additional 269,202 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 4.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,789,106 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $222,345,000 after acquiring an additional 153,119 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth $203,501,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

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.