Wedbush Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its target price lifted by Wedbush from $78.00 to $90.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the software maker’s stock. Wedbush’s price objective indicates a potential downside of 0.10% from the company’s current price.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on FTNT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $63.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $74.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $71.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $73.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have issued a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortinet currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $76.11.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of Fortinet stock traded up $6.41 on Friday, hitting $90.09. 4,826,157 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,420,572. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $78.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $67.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $68.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.00. Fortinet has a 1-year low of $49.63 and a 1-year high of $90.18.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.31 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Fortinet will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,693 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.06, for a total transaction of $1,731,010.58. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,842,522 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,568,434,657.32. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 70,538 shares of company stock worth $5,403,559. 18.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Eastern Bank acquired a new position in Fortinet during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new stake in Fortinet in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Winthrop Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 73.3% during the 3rd 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, City State Bank lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 900.0% during the 3rd quarter. City State Bank now owns 500 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. 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.