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 report released on Thursday.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $52.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Capital One Financial cut shares of Fortinet from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a neutral rating and set a $65.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $60.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a sector perform rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $77.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have given a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $72.19.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of Fortinet stock opened at $63.40 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38. The stock has a market cap of $48.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 1.08. The company’s fifty day moving average is $68.50 and its 200 day moving average is $61.58. Fortinet has a twelve month low of $44.12 and a twelve month high of $81.24.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 5th. The software maker reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $1.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.41 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 21.64% and a negative return on equity of 7,572.46%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.38 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.07, for a total value of $3,183,021.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now 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 SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 38,369 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.45, for a total transaction of $2,549,620.05. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 29,887,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,985,992,346.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of the firm’s 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 owns 51,813,638 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,578,767,976.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 132,139 shares of company stock worth $8,977,876. Insiders own 17.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vima LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 135.6% during the 1st quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 377 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Headinvest LLC bought a new position in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. bought a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, Retirement Group LLC bought a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. 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.