Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Trading 8.5% Higher on Analyst Upgrade

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)’s share price rose 8.5% during mid-day trading on Friday after Wedbush raised their price target on the stock from $78.00 to $90.00. Wedbush currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Fortinet traded as high as $91.05 and last traded at $90.79. Approximately 5,969,080 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 10% from the average daily volume of 5,425,838 shares. The stock had previously closed at $83.68.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $71.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $72.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $76.11.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,307 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.89, for a total transaction of $1,908,610.23. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,915,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,005,692,751.70. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 70,538 shares of company stock valued at $5,403,559 in the last three months. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Winthrop Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Fortinet in the first quarter worth $25,000. Eastern Bank bought a new stake in Fortinet in the third quarter worth $25,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new stake in Fortinet in the third quarter worth $26,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC lifted its position in Fortinet by 73.3% in the third quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 409 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 173 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oakworth Capital Inc. bought a new stake in Fortinet in the second quarter worth $33,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortinet Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $69.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.31, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a 50-day moving average of $78.43 and a 200-day moving average of $67.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 1.22.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.16. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 2,160.10% and a net margin of 23.71%. The company had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.31 earnings per share. Fortinet’s revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.75 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.