Robert W. Baird Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price objective boosted by Robert W. Baird from $80.00 to $88.00 in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. Robert W. Baird currently has an outperform rating on the software maker’s stock.

FTNT has been the topic of several other reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Fortinet from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on Fortinet from $61.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Fortinet from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Fortinet from $66.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have given a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $77.72.

Fortinet Stock Up 10.0 %

NASDAQ FTNT traded up $8.36 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $92.04. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 13,790,376 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,707,677. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $78.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $68.13. Fortinet has a twelve month low of $49.63 and a twelve month high of $92.53. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $70.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.46, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.00.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.16. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 2,160.10% and a net margin of 23.71%. The business had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.40 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.31 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,693 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.06, for a total transaction of $1,731,010.58. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,842,522 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,568,434,657.32. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 70,538 shares of company stock valued at $5,403,559. Insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Eastern Bank purchased a new position in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Winthrop Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 73.3% in the third quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 409 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 173 shares during the period. Finally, City State Bank increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 900.0% in the third quarter. City State Bank now owns 500 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 450 shares during the period. 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.