Fortinet’s (FTNT) “Hold” Rating Reaffirmed at Needham & Company LLC

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT)‘s stock had its “hold” rating reiterated by Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports.

FTNT has been the subject of several other reports. UBS Group increased their price objective on Fortinet from $70.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Fortinet from $82.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $112.00 price target (up from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Monday. Scotiabank raised their price target on Fortinet from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Fortinet from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $98.07.

Fortinet Trading Down 0.3 %

NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $104.72 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. Fortinet has a 1-year low of $54.57 and a 1-year high of $105.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $80.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $97.13 and a 200 day simple moving average of $84.21.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 973.30% and a net margin of 26.79%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director William H. Neukom bought 355 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $98.50 per share, with a total value of $34,967.50. Following the transaction, the director now owns 150,245 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,799,132.50. This trade represents a 0.24 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 17,650 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.66, for a total transaction of $1,688,399.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $448,549.74. This trade represents a 79.01 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 67,860 shares of company stock worth $6,469,056. Insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of FTNT. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,281,279 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,115,663,000 after buying an additional 766,135 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,883,012 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,151,097,000 after buying an additional 354,692 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 10.3% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,787,931 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $448,854,000 after buying an additional 542,727 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,974,625 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $375,523,000 after buying an additional 156,766 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 276.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,685,230 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $285,790,000 after buying an additional 2,705,767 shares during the last quarter. 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.