Cantor Fitzgerald Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price objective increased by analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald from $95.00 to $110.00 in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “neutral” rating on the software maker’s stock. Cantor Fitzgerald’s price objective points to a potential upside of 9.02% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on the company. KeyCorp upgraded Fortinet from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $115.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $88.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Bank of America lifted their price target on Fortinet from $87.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on Fortinet from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. One 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $97.73.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $100.90 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $77.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.01. Fortinet has a 52-week low of $54.57 and a 52-week high of $102.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.34. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $96.57 and its two-hundred day moving average is $83.61.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The software maker reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.13. Fortinet had a return on equity of 973.30% and a net margin of 26.79%. The firm had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.48 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.35 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 1.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 4,250 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.83, for a total transaction of $386,027.50. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $425,901.87. This trade represents a 47.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director William H. Neukom acquired 355 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 purchase, the director now directly owns 150,245 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,799,132.50. This represents a 0.24 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 67,860 shares of company stock worth $6,469,056 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Eastern Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Fortinet during the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its stake in Fortinet by 73.3% in the third quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 409 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 173 shares in the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth $46,000. Finally, City State Bank increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 900.0% during the third quarter. City State Bank now owns 500 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.