Piper Sandler Reaffirms Overweight Rating for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Piper Sandler reaffirmed their overweight rating on shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. Piper Sandler currently has a $135.00 price target on the software maker’s stock, up from their previous price target of $120.00.

Several other research analysts have also commented on the company. Mizuho raised their price target on Fortinet from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Fortinet from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $112.00 price objective (up previously from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $77.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have given a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $101.43.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $107.66 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $97.38 and a 200-day simple moving average of $84.56. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The stock has a market cap of $82.52 billion, a PE ratio of 47.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.01. Fortinet has a twelve month low of $54.57 and a twelve month high of $110.53.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a net margin of 29.30% and a return on equity of 463.85%. Equities analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 4,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.83, for a total transaction of $386,027.50. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 4,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $425,901.87. This trade represents a 47.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total value of $2,150,466.08. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 49,039,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,576,384,617.36. This represents a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 67,860 shares of company stock valued at $6,469,056 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Eastern Bank acquired a new position in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC raised its holdings in Fortinet by 73.3% during the third quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 409 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares in the last quarter. City State Bank lifted its position in Fortinet by 900.0% in the third quarter. City State Bank now owns 500 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares during the period. Finally, Paladin Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $46,000. 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.