Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Sets New 52-Week High on Analyst Upgrade

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) shares reached a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday after Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on the stock from $95.00 to $110.00. Cantor Fitzgerald currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Fortinet traded as high as $103.69 and last traded at $102.60, with a volume of 311009 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $102.78.

Several other research firms have also commented on FTNT. Wedbush lifted their price target on Fortinet from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Piper Sandler upgraded Fortinet from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $100.00 to $120.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Fortinet from $90.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on Fortinet from $77.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have given a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.73.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 4,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.83, for a total transaction of $386,027.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,689 shares in the company, valued at $425,901.87. This represents a 47.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director William H. Neukom purchased 355 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $98.50 per share, with a total value of $34,967.50. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 150,245 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,799,132.50. The trade was a 0.24 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 67,860 shares of company stock worth $6,469,056. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in Fortinet by 18,353.2% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 547,323 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $547,000 after purchasing an additional 544,357 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 36,293 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,429,000 after acquiring an additional 217 shares in the last quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 14,263 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,348,000 after acquiring an additional 1,344 shares in the last quarter. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. now owns 256,690 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $24,252,000 after acquiring an additional 5,100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New York Life Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 94,045 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $8,885,000 after acquiring an additional 463 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Trading Down 0.6 %

The company has a market cap of $78.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $96.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $83.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The software maker reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.48 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 973.30% and a net margin of 26.79%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.35 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.95 EPS for the current year.

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.