Fortinet’s (FTNT) Neutral Rating Reaffirmed at Robert W. Baird

Robert W. Baird restated their neutral rating on shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $112.00 price objective on the software maker’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $105.00.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on FTNT. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Fortinet from $82.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Bank of America upped their price objective on Fortinet from $87.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Fortinet from $105.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Fortinet from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Fortinet from $100.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Fortinet currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.73.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Fortinet stock opened at $105.07 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $96.92 and its 200 day moving average price is $84.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $80.53 billion, a PE ratio of 53.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.34. Fortinet has a one year low of $54.57 and a one year high of $105.12.

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

Insider Activity

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. First Hawaiian Bank acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $670,000. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 10.7% during the 4th quarter. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI now owns 89,827 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $8,487,000 after purchasing an additional 8,707 shares in the last quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 7.6% during the 3rd quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 15,296 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,186,000 after purchasing an additional 1,081 shares in the last quarter. Forsta AP Fonden grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 11.8% during the 3rd quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 135,500 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $10,508,000 after purchasing an additional 14,300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $10,343,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.