Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Reaches New 52-Week High – What’s Next?

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) shares hit a new 52-week high on Thursday . The company traded as high as $101.00 and last traded at $100.27, with a volume of 18510 shares. The stock had previously closed at $99.33.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Fortinet from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on Fortinet from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Fortinet from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Fortinet from $90.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $99.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $96.83.

Fortinet Price Performance

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 company has a market capitalization of $77.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $96.42 and a 200-day simple moving average of $82.98.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The software maker reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.48 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 973.30% and a net margin of 26.79%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.35 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.95 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 4,250 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,689 shares in the company, valued at $425,901.87. This represents a 47.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director William H. Neukom acquired 355 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 acquisition, the director now directly owns 150,245 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,799,132.50. This represents a 0.24 % increase in their position. 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 insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. First Hawaiian Bank purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at $670,000. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 10.7% in the 4th quarter. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI now owns 89,827 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $8,487,000 after purchasing an additional 8,707 shares during the last quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Fortinet by 7.6% during the 3rd quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 15,296 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,186,000 after buying an additional 1,081 shares during the last quarter. Forsta AP Fonden grew its position in Fortinet by 11.8% during the 3rd quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 135,500 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $10,508,000 after purchasing an additional 14,300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new position in Fortinet in the third quarter valued at $10,343,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.