Fortinet’s (FTNT) Outperform Rating Reaffirmed at Wedbush

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reissued by equities research analysts at Wedbush in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $78.00 price target on the software maker’s stock. Wedbush’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 12.09% from the company’s previous close.

FTNT has been the topic of several other reports. Truist Financial cut their target price on Fortinet from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Fortinet from $70.00 to $62.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $68.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $73.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Twenty-three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $71.31.

Fortinet Stock Performance

FTNT stock traded up $0.91 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $69.59. The stock had a trading volume of 3,698,628 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,904,641. Fortinet has a 1-year low of $44.12 and a 1-year high of $73.91. The stock has a market cap of $53.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.98. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $59.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $63.70.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 2,235.48% and a net margin of 22.23%. Fortinet’s revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.31 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 1.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 18,701 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.68, for a total value of $1,116,075.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 4,663 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $278,287.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 18,701 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.68, for a total value of $1,116,075.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,663 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $278,287.84. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction of $1,386,590.32. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 10,847,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 91,915 shares of company stock valued at $5,401,638. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $319,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 5,645.7% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 266,312 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $15,587,000 after acquiring an additional 261,677 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 99.2% in the 4th quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 12,064 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $706,000 after acquiring an additional 6,008 shares during the last quarter. Executive Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Executive Wealth Management LLC now owns 59,144 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,462,000 after purchasing an additional 3,774 shares during the period. Finally, Leeward Financial Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at $231,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.