Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Trading 8.5% Higher on Analyst Upgrade

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) shares shot up 8.5% on Friday after Wedbush raised their price target on the stock from $78.00 to $90.00. Wedbush currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Fortinet traded as high as $91.05 and last traded at $90.79. 5,969,080 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 10% from the average session volume of 5,425,838 shares. The stock had previously closed at $83.68.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $66.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $68.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have issued a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $76.11.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,538 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.94, for a total transaction of $1,763,937.72. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,878,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,662,977,721.64. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders sold 70,538 shares of company stock worth $5,403,559 in the last three months. 18.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 499,689 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $38,751,000 after buying an additional 3,703 shares during the period. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 3rd quarter worth about $2,021,000. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 70,567 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $5,472,000 after buying an additional 2,491 shares during the period. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 8.1% in the 3rd quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,726 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $522,000 after buying an additional 503 shares during the period. Finally, BIP Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 3rd quarter worth about $295,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortinet Stock Up 8.5 %

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $78.43 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $67.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $69.45 billion, a PE ratio of 53.31, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.00. 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 (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $1.43 billion for 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%. Fortinet’s revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.31 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.