Fortinet’s (FTNT) “Buy” Rating Reaffirmed at Rosenblatt Securities

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by equities researchers at Rosenblatt Securities in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $85.00 target price on the software maker’s stock. Rosenblatt Securities’ price objective points to a potential upside of 42.33% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Fortinet from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. StockNews.com downgraded Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Citigroup lowered shares of Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $60.00 to $62.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Fortinet from $60.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have given a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $71.35.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Fortinet stock traded down $5.48 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $59.72. 7,809,830 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,780,687. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.06. The business’s 50-day moving average is $67.71 and its 200-day moving average is $61.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $45.59 billion, a PE ratio of 41.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 1.08. Fortinet has a 12-month low of $44.12 and a 12-month high of $81.24.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 7,572.46% and a net margin of 21.64%. The firm had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.29 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Fortinet will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.07, for a total transaction of $3,183,021.88. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 51,813,638 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,578,767,976.66. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total value of $1,593,300.80. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 10,867,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $700,705,320.64. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.07, for a total transaction of $3,183,021.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 51,813,638 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,578,767,976.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 118,480 shares of company stock worth $8,021,556 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 17.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 156.8% during the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 9,441,059 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $554,945,000 after purchasing an additional 5,765,174 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 1.3% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,664,124 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $508,411,000 after purchasing an additional 108,548 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 5.1% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,595,608 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $328,350,000 after buying an additional 269,202 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,789,106 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $222,345,000 after purchasing an additional 153,119 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth about $203,501,000. 83.71% of the stock is 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.