Wedbush Issues Positive Forecast for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Price

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its target price lifted by Wedbush from $78.00 to $90.00 in a research note published on Friday,Benzinga reports. Wedbush currently has an outperform rating on the software maker’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on FTNT. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $71.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Barclays upped their price target on Fortinet from $74.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Fortinet from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Fortinet from $73.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, DZ Bank upgraded Fortinet from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $65.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have given a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $77.72.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of FTNT traded up $8.36 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $92.04. 13,790,376 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,707,677. The stock has a market capitalization of $70.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.46, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $78.74 and a 200-day moving average price of $68.13. Fortinet has a 12-month low of $49.63 and a 12-month high of $92.53.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.40 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.31 earnings per share. Fortinet’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,538 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.94, for a total transaction of $1,763,937.72. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,878,806 shares in the company, valued at $3,662,977,721.64. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders sold 70,538 shares of company stock worth $5,403,559 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 664.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 35,137,089 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,400,215,000 after purchasing an additional 30,542,551 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the 1st quarter valued at about $548,013,000. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 198.5% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 6,238,856 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $376,016,000 after acquiring an additional 4,148,520 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in Fortinet by 94.9% in the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,755,599 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $346,890,000 after purchasing an additional 2,802,446 shares during the period. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 102.5% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 3,284,203 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $224,344,000 after buying an additional 1,662,156 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.