Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Shares Gap Up on Better-Than-Expected Earnings

Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) gapped up prior to trading on Friday after the company announced better than expected quarterly earnings. The stock had previously closed at $104.72, but opened at $109.49. Fortinet shares last traded at $106.97, with a volume of 3,289,914 shares trading hands.

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 26.79% and a return on equity of 973.30%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FTNT has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Fortinet from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on Fortinet from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have given a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $99.23.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, 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 transaction, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 49,039,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,576,384,617.36. This represents a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 67,860 shares of company stock valued at $6,469,056. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 2.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,281,279 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,115,663,000 after buying an additional 766,135 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Fortinet by 2.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,883,012 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,151,097,000 after purchasing an additional 354,692 shares during the last quarter. Amundi grew its stake in Fortinet by 36.7% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 6,577,467 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $631,700,000 after buying an additional 1,766,860 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in Fortinet by 10.3% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,787,931 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $448,854,000 after purchasing an additional 542,727 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Fortinet by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,974,625 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $375,523,000 after acquiring an additional 156,766 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortinet Trading Up 0.1 %

The company has a market cap of $80.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.97, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.01. The company’s fifty day moving average is $97.13 and its two-hundred day moving average is $84.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.34.

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.