Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Coverage Initiated at Stephens

Stephens began coverage on shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage set an “equal weight” rating and a $108.00 price target on the software maker’s stock. Stephens’ target price points to a potential upside of 12.80% from the company’s current price.

FTNT has been the subject of several other research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, UBS Group set a $123.00 price target on Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $105.77.

Fortinet Trading Down 0.5 %

FTNT opened at $95.75 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $103.01 and a 200-day moving average price of $93.53. Fortinet has a 12 month low of $54.57 and a 12 month high of $114.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market cap of $73.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.49, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 326,784 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.17, for a total transaction of $32,080,385.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 11,000,068 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,079,876,675.56. This trade represents a 2.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director William H. Neukom bought 328 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $106.33 per share, for a total transaction of $34,876.24. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 300,006 shares in the company, valued at $31,899,637.98. The trade was a 0.11 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 599,988 shares of company stock worth $59,094,530. 18.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FTNT. Townsquare Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 32.7% during the third quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 11,082 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $859,000 after purchasing an additional 2,729 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 14.7% during the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 25,760 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,998,000 after purchasing an additional 3,300 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its stake in Fortinet by 21.0% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 50,096 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,885,000 after buying an additional 8,708 shares during the period. Erste Asset Management GmbH bought a new position in Fortinet during the third quarter worth about $93,000. Finally, Investment Management Corp of Ontario grew its stake in Fortinet by 49.0% in the third quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario now owns 21,601 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,675,000 after acquiring an additional 7,100 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.