Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Earns Neutral Rating from Guggenheim

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating restated by equities research analysts at Guggenheim in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on FTNT. 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. KeyCorp upgraded Fortinet from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $115.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Fortinet from $88.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Citigroup increased their target price on Fortinet from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $96.83.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT traded down $0.53 during trading on Friday, reaching $96.92. 1,490,345 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,913,979. Fortinet has a 12-month low of $54.57 and a 12-month high of $101.00. 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 $74.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.81, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.00. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $95.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $81.33.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 22,916 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.93, for a total value of $2,244,163.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,983,683 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,796,972,076.19. The trade was a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director William H. Neukom bought 355 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $98.50 per share, for a total transaction of $34,967.50. Following the purchase, the director now owns 150,245 shares in the company, valued at $14,799,132.50. This represents a 0.24 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 67,860 shares of company stock valued at $6,469,056. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. First Hawaiian Bank purchased a new stake in Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $670,000. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 10.7% during the fourth quarter. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI now owns 89,827 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $8,487,000 after acquiring an additional 8,707 shares during the period. Apollon Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 7.6% in the third quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 15,296 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,186,000 after acquiring an additional 1,081 shares in the last quarter. Forsta AP Fonden boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 11.8% in the third quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 135,500 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $10,508,000 after purchasing an additional 14,300 shares during the period. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new position in Fortinet during the 3rd quarter worth $10,343,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.