Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Price Target Raised to $70.00

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its target price upped by UBS Group from $69.00 to $70.00 in a research report released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the software maker’s stock.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on FTNT. Mizuho decreased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $66.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $73.00 to $69.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. TD Cowen raised shares of Fortinet from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $75.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a sector outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Twenty-three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $71.31.

Fortinet Price Performance

FTNT stock traded up $1.01 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $69.69. 6,988,618 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,926,143. The firm has a market cap of $53.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.55, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.98. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $63.74. Fortinet has a 1-year low of $44.12 and a 1-year high of $73.91.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.40 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 22.23% and a negative return on equity of 2,235.48%. The firm’s revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.31 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Fortinet will post 1.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,267 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.01, for a total transaction of $1,456,262.67. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,777,294 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,927,125,412.94. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total value of $1,386,590.32. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 10,847,018 shares in the company, valued at $608,626,179.98. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,267 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.01, for a total transaction of $1,456,262.67. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,777,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,927,125,412.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 91,915 shares of company stock worth $5,401,638. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 664.8% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 35,137,089 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,400,215,000 after buying an additional 30,542,551 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the first quarter worth approximately $548,013,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $203,501,000. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 94.9% during the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,755,599 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $346,890,000 after buying an additional 2,802,446 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sarasin & Partners LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the first quarter worth approximately $120,746,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.