Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Downgraded by StockNews.com to Hold

StockNews.com cut shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Thursday.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on FTNT. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $60.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a sector perform rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Fortinet from a buy rating to a neutral rating and upped their target price for the stock from $60.00 to $62.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Piper Sandler reiterated a neutral rating and issued a $75.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, HSBC cut shares of Fortinet from a hold rating to a reduce rating and set a $57.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have assigned a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $72.19.

Fortinet Trading Down 1.0 %

NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $63.40 on Thursday. Fortinet has a one year low of $44.12 and a one year high of $81.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.06. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $68.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.72, a PEG ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 1.08.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 5th. The software maker reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $1.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.41 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 21.64% and a negative return on equity of 7,572.46%. Fortinet’s quarterly revenue was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.38 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 38,369 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.45, for a total value of $2,549,620.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 29,887,018 shares in the company, valued at $1,985,992,346.10. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.40, for a total value of $1,691,751.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,625,005 shares in the company, valued at $3,471,825,357. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 38,369 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.45, for a total transaction of $2,549,620.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 29,887,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,985,992,346.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 132,139 shares of company stock valued at $8,977,876. Insiders own 17.54% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vima LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 135.6% during the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 377 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Headinvest LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the third quarter worth $29,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Retirement Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. 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.