Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Rating Lowered by Baird R W

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) was downgraded by investment analysts at Baird R W from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Citigroup raised their price target on Fortinet from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $112.00 price objective (up previously from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Monday. HSBC raised Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $83.00 to $111.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Fortinet from $105.00 to $106.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have issued a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.23.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $100.90 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $77.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.00. Fortinet has a fifty-two week low of $54.57 and a fifty-two week high of $102.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.25. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $96.57 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $83.61.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The software maker reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.13. Fortinet had a return on equity of 973.30% and a net margin of 26.79%. The business had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.48 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.35 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Fortinet will post 1.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 22,916 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.93, for a total value of $2,244,163.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,983,683 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,796,972,076.19. The trade was a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 17,650 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.66, for a total value of $1,688,399.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,689 shares in the company, valued at $448,549.74. This represents a 79.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 67,860 shares of company stock worth $6,469,056 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Bell Bank increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Bell Bank now owns 8,916 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $842,000 after buying an additional 220 shares during the period. Crumly & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at about $256,000. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Fortinet by 119.7% during the fourth quarter. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,300 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $690,000 after acquiring an additional 3,978 shares during the last quarter. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth about $94,000. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its stake in Fortinet by 21.3% during the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 237,404 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $22,430,000 after purchasing an additional 41,609 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by 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.