Wedbush Reiterates Outperform Rating for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating restated by research analysts at Wedbush in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $78.00 price objective on the software maker’s stock. Wedbush’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 12.72% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on the company. TD Cowen raised Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $75.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Citigroup dropped their price target on Fortinet from $68.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Fortinet from $73.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Fortinet from $81.00 to $75.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Fortinet from $67.00 to $63.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-two have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $70.04.

Fortinet Stock Up 24.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT traded up $13.39 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $69.20. The stock had a trading volume of 7,592,989 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,780,225. Fortinet has a 12 month low of $44.12 and a 12 month high of $73.91. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $58.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $63.62. The company has a market cap of $52.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.93, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.98.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.16. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 2,235.48% and a net margin of 22.23%. The business had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.31 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Fortinet will post 1.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction of $1,386,590.32. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 10,847,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction of $1,386,590.32. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 10,847,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 18,701 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.68, for a total transaction of $1,116,075.68. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,663 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $278,287.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 91,915 shares of company stock valued at $5,401,638 over the last quarter. 18.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of FTNT. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $319,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 5,645.7% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 266,312 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $15,587,000 after buying an additional 261,677 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 99.2% during the 4th quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 12,064 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $706,000 after buying an additional 6,008 shares in the last quarter. Executive Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Executive Wealth Management LLC now owns 59,144 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,462,000 after buying an additional 3,774 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Leeward Financial Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $231,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.