Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Lowered to Sell Rating by DZ Bank

DZ Bank lowered shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. DZ Bank currently has $95.00 price target on the software maker's stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on FTNT. StockNews.com lowered shares of Fortinet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Roth Capital set a $103.00 target price on Fortinet and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Robert W. Baird reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $112.00 price target (up previously from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Monday, February 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Fortinet from $114.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have issued a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortinet has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $104.80.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of FTNT stock traded down $0.32 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $97.42. The company had a trading volume of 5,719,600 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,946,647. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $98.26 and its 200 day moving average price is $97.36. Fortinet has a one year low of $54.57 and a one year 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 firm has a market capitalization of $74.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.16.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The software maker reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. Fortinet's quarterly revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.43 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Fortinet will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other news, Director William H. Neukom bought 328 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $106.33 per share, for a total transaction of $34,876.24. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 300,006 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,899,637.98. This trade represents a 0.11 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total transaction of $2,668,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,736 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $537,820.16. The trade was a 83.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 738,978 shares of company stock valued at $74,135,907 in the last quarter. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $724,048,000. Schroder Investment Management Group purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $389,867,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Fortinet by 5.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 71,662,404 shares of the software maker's stock worth $6,898,223,000 after purchasing an additional 3,546,934 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in Fortinet by 77.2% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,531,705 shares of the software maker's stock worth $617,115,000 after purchasing an additional 2,846,475 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 39.3% in the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.