StockNews.com Upgrades Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) to Buy

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) was upgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Friday.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on FTNT. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $97.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Raymond James restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $115.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Fortinet from $85.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $123.00 target price for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have issued a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $105.69.

Fortinet Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT traded up $0.20 during trading on Friday, hitting $98.65. 5,778,320 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,796,462. Fortinet has a 12-month low of $54.57 and a 12-month high of $114.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.47. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $102.34 and a 200-day moving average price of $92.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $75.86 billion, a PE ratio of 43.65, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97.

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

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, Director William H. Neukom bought 328 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $106.33 per share, for a total transaction of $34,876.24. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 300,006 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,899,637.98. The trade was a 0.11 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total transaction of $2,150,466.08. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 49,039,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,576,384,617.36. This trade represents a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 599,988 shares of company stock worth $59,094,530 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth about $724,048,000. Schroder Investment Management Group purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth about $389,867,000. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.