Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) have received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the thirty-two analysts that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nineteen have given a hold recommendation, eleven have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $103.72.

Several brokerages recently commented on FTNT. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $135.00 target price (up from $120.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday, February 7th. Baird R W lowered shares of Fortinet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $112.00 price objective (up from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday, February 3rd.

Fortinet Price Performance

FTNT stock opened at $98.28 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $75.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.49, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $102.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $91.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.47. Fortinet has a 52-week low of $54.57 and a 52-week high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Fortinet will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In related news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 17,660 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $109.18, for a total transaction of $1,928,118.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,736 shares in the company, valued at approximately $517,076.48. This trade represents a 78.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total value of $2,150,466.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 49,039,698 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,576,384,617.36. This represents a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 620,904 shares of company stock worth $61,138,694. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Fortinet by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,115,470 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $6,435,550,000 after acquiring an additional 730,994 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,281,279 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,115,663,000 after purchasing an additional 766,135 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Fortinet by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,270,913 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,440,648,000 after purchasing an additional 387,901 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Fortinet by 31.3% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,388,693 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $792,564,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000,888 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth $724,048,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.