Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Receives “Outperform” Rating from Wedbush

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating restated by equities research analysts at Wedbush in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $78.00 price objective on the software maker’s stock. Wedbush’s price target points to a potential upside of 26.75% from the stock’s previous close.

FTNT has been the subject of several other research reports. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of Fortinet from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $75.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $60.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $71.00 to $68.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $80.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $70.10.

Fortinet Price Performance

FTNT traded up $0.23 on Wednesday, reaching $61.54. The company had a trading volume of 1,199,789 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,959,424. The company has a fifty day moving average of $65.03 and a 200-day moving average of $62.28. The company has a market capitalization of $47.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.18, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a current ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38. Fortinet has a one year low of $44.12 and a one year high of $81.24.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. Fortinet had a net margin of 22.23% and a negative return on equity of 2,235.48%. The firm had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.29 EPS. Fortinet’s revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 1.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.40, for a total value of $1,691,751.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,625,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,471,825,357. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.40, for a total value of $1,691,751.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,625,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,471,825,357. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total value of $1,593,300.80. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,867,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $700,705,320.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 72,396 shares of company stock worth $4,838,534. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 664.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 35,137,089 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,400,215,000 after purchasing an additional 30,542,551 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the first quarter worth $548,013,000. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 156.8% during the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 9,441,059 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $554,945,000 after buying an additional 5,765,174 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $203,501,000. Finally, Sarasin & Partners LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the first quarter worth $120,746,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.