Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) have received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the thirty-two ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nineteen have issued a hold recommendation, eleven have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $103.72.

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Fortinet from $114.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Fortinet from $77.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Fortinet from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Fortinet from $99.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Baird R W downgraded Fortinet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd.

Fortinet Price Performance

FTNT stock opened at $111.64 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $85.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.01. The business’s 50-day moving average is $98.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $86.37. Fortinet has a 1 year low of $54.57 and a 1 year high of $112.37.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 463.85% and a net margin of 29.30%. Analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 4,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.83, for a total value of $386,027.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $425,901.87. This trade represents a 47.54 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director William H. Neukom purchased 355 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $98.50 per share, with a total value of $34,967.50. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 150,245 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,799,132.50. This trade represents a 0.24 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold 67,860 shares of company stock valued at $6,469,056 in the last three months. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Fortinet by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,115,470 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $6,435,550,000 after purchasing an additional 730,994 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Fortinet by 2.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,281,279 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,115,663,000 after purchasing an additional 766,135 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Fortinet by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,270,913 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,440,648,000 after purchasing an additional 387,901 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Fortinet by 31.3% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,388,693 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $792,564,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000,888 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $724,048,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.