Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Coverage Initiated at Stephens

Equities research analysts at Stephens started coverage on shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm set an “equal weight” rating and a $108.00 price target on the software maker’s stock. Stephens’ price target points to a potential upside of 12.80% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on FTNT. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Fortinet from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. KeyCorp raised shares of Fortinet from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $115.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $112.00 price target (up previously from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. UBS Group set a $123.00 price target on Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Baird R W lowered shares of Fortinet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $105.77.

Fortinet Price Performance

Fortinet stock opened at $95.75 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $103.01 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $93.53. Fortinet has a 52-week low of $54.57 and a 52-week high of $114.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $73.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.49, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a net margin of 29.30% and a return on equity of 256.53%. On average, equities analysts predict that Fortinet will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kenneth A. Goldman sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total value of $200,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 18,612 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,861,200. The trade was a 9.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total transaction of $2,668,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 4,736 shares in the company, valued at approximately $537,820.16. This trade represents a 83.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 599,988 shares of company stock worth $59,094,530. 18.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth about $724,048,000. Schroder Investment Management Group bought a new stake in Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at $389,867,000. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 77.2% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,531,705 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $617,115,000 after buying an additional 2,846,475 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in Fortinet by 39.3% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $720,150,000 after acquiring an additional 2,151,811 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. grew its stake in Fortinet by 72.6% in the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 4,906,439 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $463,561,000 after purchasing an additional 2,064,016 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by 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.