Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Receives Overweight Rating from Piper Sandler

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reissued by Piper Sandler in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $135.00 price objective on the software maker’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $120.00. Piper Sandler’s target price points to a potential upside of 25.82% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the company. Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Fortinet from $105.00 to $106.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Baird R W cut shares of Fortinet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $98.57.

Fortinet Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of FTNT opened at $107.30 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $82.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.01. Fortinet has a 1 year low of $54.57 and a 1 year high of $112.20. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $97.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $84.21. 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 (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. 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%. On average, analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total value 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 trade represents a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director William H. Neukom purchased 355 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $98.50 per share, for a total transaction of $34,967.50. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 150,245 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,799,132.50. This represents a 0.24 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 67,860 shares of company stock valued at $6,469,056. Insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. First Hawaiian Bank bought a new position in Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $670,000. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 10.7% in the 4th quarter. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI now owns 89,827 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $8,487,000 after purchasing an additional 8,707 shares in the last quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Fortinet by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 15,296 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,186,000 after purchasing an additional 1,081 shares during the period. Trilogy Capital Inc. lifted its position in Fortinet by 17.8% during the fourth quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. now owns 23,499 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,220,000 after purchasing an additional 3,544 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Forsta AP Fonden grew its holdings in Fortinet by 11.8% during the third quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 135,500 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $10,508,000 after purchasing an additional 14,300 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

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.