Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Receives Neutral Rating from Cantor Fitzgerald

Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed their neutral rating on shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) in a research note released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $65.00 price target on the software maker’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Fortinet from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. HSBC lowered Fortinet from a hold rating to a reduce rating and set a $57.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Fortinet from $60.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a sector perform rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Fortinet from $60.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded Fortinet from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and set a $75.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $72.03.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of FTNT opened at $64.66 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $68.72 and a two-hundred day moving average of $61.50. Fortinet has a one year low of $44.12 and a one year high of $81.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.19. The stock has a market cap of $49.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.08.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 5th. The software maker reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $1.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.41 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 7,572.46% and a net margin of 21.64%. The company’s revenue was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.38 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Fortinet will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 38,369 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.45, for a total transaction of $2,549,620.05. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 29,887,018 shares in the company, valued at $1,985,992,346.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.40, for a total transaction of $1,691,751.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,625,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,471,825,357. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 38,369 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.45, for a total value of $2,549,620.05. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 29,887,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,985,992,346.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 132,139 shares of company stock worth $8,977,876. Insiders own 17.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Covestor Ltd increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 53.3% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 164 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $56,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the period. Rise Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Fortinet by 135.6% in the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 377 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. increased its holdings in Fortinet by 20.4% in the first quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 430 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $147,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Vima LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. purchased a new position in Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.