Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Piper Sandler Analyst Says

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price objective hoisted by investment analysts at Piper Sandler from $70.00 to $80.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “neutral” rating on the software maker’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price objective would indicate a potential downside of 2.42% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on FTNT. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $65.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Fortinet from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Fortinet from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. DZ Bank upgraded Fortinet from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their price objective on Fortinet from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $75.68.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of Fortinet stock opened at $81.98 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $78.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $67.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.32. Fortinet has a one year low of $49.63 and a one year high of $83.83. The company has a market cap of $62.71 billion, a PE ratio of 49.52, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.00.

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

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,307 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.89, for a total value of $1,908,610.23. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,915,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,005,692,751.70. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders sold 70,538 shares of company stock valued at $5,403,559 in the last 90 days. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Winthrop Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet in the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Eastern Bank acquired a new position in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 73.3% during the third quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 409 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oakworth Capital Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the second quarter valued at $33,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.