Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Upgraded at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report published on Tuesday.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on FTNT. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Fortinet from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Fortinet from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Susquehanna upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a hold rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Twenty-three investment 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 MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $71.31.

Fortinet Trading Down 2.8 %

Fortinet stock opened at $74.49 on Tuesday. Fortinet has a 12 month low of $44.12 and a 12 month high of $78.08. The company has a market capitalization of $56.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.99. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $66.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $65.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.40 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 23.71% and a negative return on equity of 2,160.10%. Fortinet’s revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.31 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Fortinet will post 1.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,693 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.06, for a total transaction of $1,731,010.58. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,842,522 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,568,434,657.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,693 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.06, for a total value of $1,731,010.58. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,842,522 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,568,434,657.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 10,847,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 72,672 shares of company stock worth $4,573,864. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,052,487 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $4,648,665,000 after acquiring an additional 779,271 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Fortinet by 664.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 30,542,551 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB boosted its position 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 valued at $491,610,000 after buying an additional 134,366 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP grew its stake 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 valued at $376,016,000 after buying an additional 4,148,520 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 94.9% in the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,755,599 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $346,890,000 after buying an additional 2,802,446 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is currently 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.