Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Given Overweight Rating at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler reiterated their overweight rating on shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) in a research report sent to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. Piper Sandler currently has a $135.00 price target on the software maker’s stock, up from their prior price target of $120.00.

FTNT has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday. KeyCorp raised Fortinet from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $115.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Fortinet from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Hsbc Global Res raised Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Fortinet from $90.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have given a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $101.43.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of FTNT opened at $107.66 on Friday. Fortinet has a 12 month low of $54.57 and a 12 month high of $110.53. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $97.38 and a 200-day moving average price of $84.56. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The firm has a market cap of $82.52 billion, a PE ratio of 47.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.01.

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 463.85% and a net margin of 29.30%. Equities research analysts predict that Fortinet will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total transaction of $2,150,466.08. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 49,039,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,576,384,617.36. The trade was a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 4,250 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.83, for a total transaction of $386,027.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 4,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $425,901.87. This trade represents a 47.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 67,860 shares of company stock worth $6,469,056. Insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in Fortinet by 30.4% during the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 15,714 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,485,000 after buying an additional 3,659 shares in the last quarter. Saturna Capital Corp purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth $727,000. Prosperity Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at about $400,000. Avantax Planning Partners Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at about $265,000. Finally, Miller Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth about $330,000. 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.