Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms “Hold” Rating for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Needham & Company LLC reissued their hold rating on shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) in a research note published on Friday, Benzinga reports.

FTNT has been the subject of several other reports. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $52.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Piper Sandler restated a neutral rating and issued a $75.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Susquehanna reissued a neutral rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Fortinet from $60.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $70.37.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Fortinet stock opened at $58.81 on Friday. Fortinet has a fifty-two week low of $44.12 and a fifty-two week high of $81.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.20. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $67.53 and a 200-day moving average price of $61.95. The company has a market capitalization of $44.89 billion, a PE ratio of 38.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.08.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.34 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 2,235.48% and a net margin of 22.23%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.29 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 1.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.07, for a total value of $3,183,021.88. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 51,813,638 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,578,767,976.66. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.07, for a total value of $3,183,021.88. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 51,813,638 shares in the company, valued at $3,578,767,976.66. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total transaction of $1,593,300.80. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,867,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $700,705,320.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 118,480 shares of company stock valued at $8,021,556. Insiders own 17.54% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. Rise Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 135.6% in the 1st quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 377 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 217 shares during the period. Vima LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. Headinvest LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

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.