Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Hits New 52-Week High After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday after Susquehanna raised their price target on the stock from $90.00 to $110.00. Susquehanna currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Fortinet traded as high as $110.99 and last traded at $109.55, with a volume of 5108038 shares. The stock had previously closed at $107.66.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on FTNT. StockNews.com raised shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $103.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $105.00 price target (up from $85.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, KeyCorp upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $115.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $102.77.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 4,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.83, for a total value of $386,027.50. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 4,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $425,901.87. This trade represents a 47.54 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the firm’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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 49,039,698 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,576,384,617.36. This represents a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have 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

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth $724,048,000. Schroder Investment Management Group purchased a new stake in Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth $389,867,000. FMR LLC increased its stake in Fortinet by 276.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,685,230 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $285,790,000 after buying an additional 2,705,767 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in Fortinet by 39.3% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $720,150,000 after buying an additional 2,151,811 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi grew its holdings in Fortinet by 36.7% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 6,577,467 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $631,700,000 after acquiring an additional 1,766,860 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $82.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.34. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $98.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $85.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced 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 net margin of 29.30% and a return on equity of 463.85%. Equities research analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.