Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Given “Hold” Rating at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC restated their hold rating on shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) in a research note published on Friday,Benzinga reports.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $77.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price target on Fortinet from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Fortinet from $88.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and set a $112.00 price objective (up from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have given a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $101.43.

Fortinet Stock Up 2.8 %

Fortinet stock opened at $107.66 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.25. Fortinet has a fifty-two week low of $54.57 and a fifty-two week high of $110.53. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $97.38 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $84.56. The firm has a market cap of $82.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.01.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 973.30% and a net margin of 26.79%. As a group, analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Fortinet news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 4,250 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.83, for a total transaction of $386,027.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 4,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $425,901.87. The trade was a 47.54 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 49,039,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,576,384,617.36. The trade was a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 67,860 shares of company stock valued at $6,469,056. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

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