Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Price Up 2.1%

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) rose 2.1% on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $73.29 and last traded at $72.97. Approximately 1,400,958 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 76% from the average daily volume of 5,896,145 shares. The stock had previously closed at $71.50.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FTNT has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Fortinet from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Twenty-three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $71.31.

Fortinet Stock Performance

The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $60.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $63.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $56.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.07, a P/E/G ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.98.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.31 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 18,701 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 4,663 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $278,287.84. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, 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 available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 18,701 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,663 shares in the company, valued at approximately $278,287.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 91,915 shares of company stock worth $5,401,638. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Fortinet by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,052,487 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,648,665,000 after acquiring an additional 779,271 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Fortinet by 664.8% in 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 acquiring an additional 30,542,551 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB lifted its position in Fortinet by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,156,797 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $491,610,000 after acquiring an additional 134,366 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in Fortinet by 94.9% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,755,599 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $346,890,000 after acquiring an additional 2,802,446 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its position in Fortinet by 15.0% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 5,026,394 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $302,941,000 after acquiring an additional 657,400 shares in the last quarter. 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.