Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wall Street Zen

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report issued on Saturday.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on FTNT. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $105.00 to $95.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Fortinet from $115.00 to $95.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Stephens initiated coverage on Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. They set an "equal weight" rating and a $108.00 target price for the company. Cantor Fitzgerald cut their target price on Fortinet from $115.00 to $100.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target on Fortinet from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $105.62.

Fortinet Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of FTNT opened at $99.06 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $103.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $100.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 1.29. Fortinet has a one year low of $54.57 and a one year high of $114.82. The company has a market cap of $75.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.77, a P/E/G ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 1.06.

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, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.54 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 148.79% and a net margin of 30.60%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.43 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, Director William H. Neukom acquired 335 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 6th. The stock was bought at an average price of $104.22 per share, with a total value of $34,913.70. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 301,471 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $31,419,307.62. This represents a 0.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,488 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.10, for a total value of $16,815,576.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer 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. 17.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $724,048,000. Schroder Investment Management Group bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $389,867,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 5.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 71,662,404 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $6,898,223,000 after acquiring an additional 3,546,934 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 2,846,475 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 39.3% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $720,150,000 after acquiring an additional 2,151,811 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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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