Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Given Average Recommendation of "Hold" by Brokerages

Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average rating of "Hold" from the thirty-four research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $105.62.

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on FTNT shares. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $135.00 to $115.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Monday, May 12th. They issued a "peer perform" rating for the company. Stephens started coverage on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. They issued an "equal weight" rating and a $108.00 price target for the company. Finally, Roth Capital set a $103.00 price target on shares of Fortinet and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd.

Insider Activity

In other Fortinet news, Director William H. Neukom bought 335 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 6th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $104.22 per share, with a total value of $34,913.70. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 301,471 shares of the company's stock, valued at $31,419,307.62. The trade was a 0.11% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,488 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.10, for a total transaction of $16,815,576.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $5,452,678,361.90. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Fortinet by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 71,662,404 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $6,898,223,000 after buying an additional 3,546,934 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Fortinet by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,270,913 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $1,440,648,000 after buying an additional 387,901 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Fortinet by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,570,528 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $824,999,000 after buying an additional 181,835 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth $724,048,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 39.3% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker's stock worth $720,150,000 after purchasing an additional 2,151,811 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortinet Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $106.65 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The firm has a market cap of $81.63 billion, a PE ratio of 43.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a 50-day moving average of $103.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $100.84. Fortinet has a 1-year low of $54.57 and a 1-year high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The software maker reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. Fortinet had a net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 148.79%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.54 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.43 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Fortinet will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

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.

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