Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Shares Up 1.7% – Time to Buy?

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) was up 1.7% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $110.65 and last traded at $110.85. Approximately 860,267 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 4,558,789 shares. The stock had previously closed at $109.02.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on FTNT shares. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $103.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $88.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One equities research 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $103.72.

Fortinet Stock Up 0.9 %

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $101.31 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $89.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $83.06 billion, a PE ratio of 47.79, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a net margin of 29.30% and a return on equity of 256.53%. As a group, analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, Director William H. Neukom acquired 355 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $98.50 per share, for a total transaction of $34,967.50. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 150,245 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,799,132.50. This trade represents a 0.24 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total transaction of $2,668,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 4,736 shares in the company, valued at $537,820.16. This trade represents a 83.23 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 87,120 shares of company stock worth $8,991,409. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $724,048,000. Schroder Investment Management Group purchased a new position in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $389,867,000. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Fortinet by 77.2% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,531,705 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $617,115,000 after buying an additional 2,846,475 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Fortinet by 39.3% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $720,150,000 after buying an additional 2,151,811 shares during the period. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its stake in Fortinet by 72.6% during the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 4,906,439 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $463,561,000 after buying an additional 2,064,016 shares during the period. 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.