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

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

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on FTNT. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Fortinet from $60.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. They issued a market perform rating and a $65.00 price target for the company. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Fortinet from $52.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Susquehanna reissued a neutral rating and issued a $80.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $70.68.

Fortinet Trading Down 9.7 %

FTNT traded down $6.32 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $58.88. 15,896,615 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,338,557. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $67.53 and a 200 day moving average price of $61.90. Fortinet has a 52-week low of $44.12 and a 52-week high of $81.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.94 billion, a PE ratio of 38.48, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.08.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 5,061.85% and a net margin of 22.23%. Fortinet’s revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.29 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Fortinet will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total value of $1,593,300.80. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,867,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $700,705,320.64. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total value of $1,593,300.80. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 10,867,018 shares in the company, valued at $700,705,320.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,992 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.75, for a total value of $1,553,482.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,660,648 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,150,776,958. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 118,480 shares of company stock valued at $8,021,556 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 17.54% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in Fortinet by 156.8% during the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 9,441,059 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $554,945,000 after buying an additional 5,765,174 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $203,501,000. Sarasin & Partners LLP acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the first quarter worth $120,746,000. DSM Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the third quarter worth $75,698,000. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its stake in Fortinet by 358.1% during the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 1,644,139 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $96,478,000 after acquiring an additional 1,285,197 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.