Cantor Fitzgerald Issues Positive Forecast for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Price

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price objective hoisted by Cantor Fitzgerald from $95.00 to $110.00 in a report released on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a neutral rating on the software maker’s stock.

FTNT has been the topic of a number of other reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $115.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Guggenheim restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $87.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.73.

Fortinet Price Performance

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $102.78 on Tuesday. Fortinet has a 52 week low of $54.57 and a 52 week high of $102.87. The company has a market cap of $78.78 billion, a PE ratio of 51.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.01. 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 $96.70 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $83.92.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The software maker reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.13. Fortinet had a net margin of 26.79% and a return on equity of 973.30%. The firm had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.48 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.35 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Fortinet will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Fortinet news, Director William H. Neukom purchased 355 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The stock was bought at an average price of $98.50 per share, with a total value of $34,967.50. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 150,245 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,799,132.50. The trade was a 0.24 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 17,650 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.66, for a total value of $1,688,399.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $448,549.74. The trade was a 79.01 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 67,860 shares of company stock valued at $6,469,056 over the last quarter. 18.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Fortinet by 13.5% during the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 843 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $80,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Fortinet by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,833 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $646,000 after buying an additional 107 shares during the period. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in Fortinet by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC now owns 8,346 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $789,000 after buying an additional 114 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in Fortinet by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,106 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $104,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the period. Finally, Diversified Trust Co lifted its position in Fortinet by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 23,852 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,254,000 after buying an additional 135 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

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.