Stifel Nicolaus Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price target raised by analysts at Stifel Nicolaus from $84.00 to $90.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “hold” rating on the software maker’s stock. Stifel Nicolaus’ target price would indicate a potential downside of 2.05% from the company’s current price.

Several other research firms have also weighed in on FTNT. Wedbush upped their price target on Fortinet from $78.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Raymond James upped their target price on Fortinet from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Guggenheim cut shares of Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, HSBC raised shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $83.00 to $111.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $83.21.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $91.88 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $81.10 and its two-hundred day moving average is $69.51. The company has a market cap of $70.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 1.00. Fortinet has a 12-month low of $50.65 and a 12-month high of $100.59. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,307 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.89, for a total value of $1,908,610.23. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,915,530 shares in the company, valued at $4,005,692,751.70. This represents a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 664.8% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 35,137,089 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,400,215,000 after buying an additional 30,542,551 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,281,279 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,115,663,000 after buying an additional 766,135 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,883,012 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,151,097,000 after buying an additional 354,692 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 1.7% during the second quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,156,797 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $491,610,000 after buying an additional 134,366 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 198.5% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 6,238,856 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $376,016,000 after buying an additional 4,148,520 shares in the last quarter. 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.