Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms “Hold” Rating for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Needham & Company LLC restated their hold rating on shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on FTNT. Rosenblatt Securities decreased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $68.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 5th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Fortinet from $73.00 to $69.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Piper Sandler cut their price target on Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a sector outperform rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Twenty-three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $71.31.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ FTNT traded up $1.01 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $69.69. The stock had a trading volume of 6,988,618 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,926,143. Fortinet has a one year low of $44.12 and a one year high of $73.91. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $59.59 and a 200 day simple moving average of $63.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $53.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.98.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total value of $1,386,590.32. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,847,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, Director William H. Neukom acquired 586 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 6th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $59.55 per share, with a total value of $34,896.30. Following the purchase, the director now owns 295,778 shares in the company, valued at $17,613,579.90. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction of $1,386,590.32. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,847,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 91,915 shares of company stock worth $5,401,638 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Fortinet by 6.6% in the 2nd quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 114,634 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $6,909,000 after acquiring an additional 7,086 shares during the last quarter. Alpha Family Trust acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the second quarter valued at approximately $226,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 15.0% in the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 5,026,394 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $302,941,000 after purchasing an additional 657,400 shares during the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI boosted its stake in Fortinet by 38.1% during the second quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 22,468 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,354,000 after buying an additional 6,193 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new position in Fortinet during the second quarter worth $7,283,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Fortinet

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.