Citigroup Boosts Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Price Target to $76.00

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price target upped by Citigroup from $66.00 to $76.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. Citigroup currently has a neutral rating on the software maker’s stock.

FTNT has been the topic of a number of other reports. 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 report on Thursday, July 18th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a market perform rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Fortinet from $73.00 to $69.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Rosenblatt Securities lowered their price objective on Fortinet from $85.00 to $68.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Fortinet from $63.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Twenty-three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $71.57.

Fortinet Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of FTNT opened at $76.34 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $67.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $65.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.32. The firm has a market cap of $58.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.00. Fortinet has a 52 week low of $44.12 and a 52 week high of $78.08.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 negative return on equity of 2,160.10% and a net margin of 23.71%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.31 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 1.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction of $1,386,590.32. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,847,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,693 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.06, for a total value of $1,731,010.58. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,842,522 shares in the company, valued at $3,568,434,657.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction of $1,386,590.32. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,847,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 72,672 shares of company stock worth $4,573,864. Insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vima LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Winthrop Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Fortinet in the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC increased its stake in Fortinet by 135.6% during the 1st quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 377 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 217 shares in the last quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Oakworth Capital Inc. bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the second quarter valued at $33,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by 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.