Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Sets New 1-Year High – Still a Buy?

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $101.00 and last traded at $100.27, with a volume of 18510 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $99.33.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on FTNT. Guggenheim restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday, January 24th. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Wedbush increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Barclays raised their price objective on Fortinet from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Fortinet from $99.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $96.83.

Fortinet Stock Down 0.0 %

The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $96.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $82.98. The company has a market cap of $77.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.00.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The software maker reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.13. Fortinet had a net margin of 26.79% and a return on equity of 973.30%. The business had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.48 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.35 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director William H. Neukom bought 355 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $98.50 per share, with a total value of $34,967.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 150,245 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,799,132.50. The trade was a 0.24 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 4,250 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.83, for a total value of $386,027.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 4,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $425,901.87. The trade was a 47.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 67,860 shares of company stock worth $6,469,056 over the last 90 days. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its position in Fortinet by 35.7% in the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 3,807 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $360,000 after buying an additional 1,002 shares during the period. DSM Capital Partners LLC grew its position in Fortinet by 27.4% in the 4th quarter. DSM Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,431,164 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $229,696,000 after purchasing an additional 523,425 shares during the last quarter. Convergence Investment Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at about $2,208,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. grew its position in Fortinet by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. now owns 6,702 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $633,000 after buying an additional 384 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Fortinet by 30.6% during the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 696 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $66,000 after acquiring an additional 163 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.