Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Rating Upgraded by Hsbc Global Res

Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) from a moderate sell rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Wednesday morning, Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $72.00 to $67.00 and set an in-line rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Wednesday. HSBC upgraded shares of Fortinet from a reduce rating to a hold rating and set a $59.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on Fortinet from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortinet from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday. Twenty-three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $71.31.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $69.69 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $59.59 and a 200-day simple moving average of $63.74. Fortinet has a 12 month low of $44.12 and a 12 month high of $73.91. The company has a market cap of $53.24 billion, a PE ratio of 45.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.98.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.40 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 22.23% and a negative return on equity of 2,235.48%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.31 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 1.47 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total value of $1,386,590.32. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 10,847,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $608,626,179.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, 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 completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,847,018 shares in the company, valued at $608,626,179.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,235 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.53, for a total transaction of $1,442,709.55. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,742,483 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,901,640,012.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 91,915 shares of company stock worth $5,401,638 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 5,645.7% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 266,312 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $15,587,000 after buying an additional 261,677 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 99.2% during the 4th quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 12,064 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $706,000 after purchasing an additional 6,008 shares during the last quarter. RPG Investment Advisory LLC lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. RPG Investment Advisory LLC now owns 208,008 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $12,175,000 after buying an additional 4,308 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC boosted its position in Fortinet by 14.7% during the fourth quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 313,753 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $18,364,000 after purchasing an additional 40,225 shares during the period. Finally, Seascape Capital Management acquired a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,897,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently 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.