Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Cut to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Friday morning.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $97.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $87.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $105.00 target price (up from $85.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $103.72.

Fortinet Price Performance

Fortinet stock opened at $101.28 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $77.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $102.06 and a 200-day simple moving average of $91.04. Fortinet has a 12-month low of $54.57 and a 12-month high of $114.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 29.30% and a return on equity of 256.53%. Equities analysts expect that Fortinet will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In related news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total transaction of $2,668,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $537,820.16. This trade represents a 83.23 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director William H. Neukom acquired 328 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $106.33 per share, with a total value of $34,876.24. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 300,006 shares in the company, valued at $31,899,637.98. This represents a 0.11 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 87,120 shares of company stock valued at $8,991,409. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth $724,048,000. Schroder Investment Management Group acquired a new position in Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth $389,867,000. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Fortinet by 77.2% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,531,705 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $617,115,000 after acquiring an additional 2,846,475 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in Fortinet by 39.3% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $720,150,000 after acquiring an additional 2,151,811 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. grew its holdings in Fortinet by 72.6% during the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 4,906,439 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $463,561,000 after acquiring an additional 2,064,016 shares in the last quarter. 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.