Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Given New $75.00 Price Target at Robert W. Baird

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price objective reduced by Robert W. Baird from $81.00 to $75.00 in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the software maker’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Capital One Financial cut shares of Fortinet from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. DZ Bank cut shares of Fortinet from a hold rating to a sell rating and set a $60.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, January 18th. They set a market perform rating and a $65.00 target price on the stock. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $60.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $60.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $70.37.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $58.81 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $44.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.08. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $67.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.95. Fortinet has a twelve month low of $44.12 and a twelve month high of $81.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.34 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 22.23% and a negative return on equity of 2,235.48%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.29 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Fortinet will post 1.4 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.07, for a total value of $3,183,021.88. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 51,813,638 shares in the company, valued at $3,578,767,976.66. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total transaction of $1,593,300.80. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,867,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $700,705,320.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.07, for a total transaction of $3,183,021.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 51,813,638 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,578,767,976.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 118,480 shares of company stock worth $8,021,556. 17.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Empowered Funds LLC raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 12.4% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 29,500 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,015,000 after buying an additional 3,258 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC increased its holdings in Fortinet by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 23,016 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,572,000 after acquiring an additional 770 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in Fortinet by 220.2% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 34,378 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,348,000 after purchasing an additional 23,643 shares in the last quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 18.5% during the 1st quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. now owns 5,589 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $382,000 after purchasing an additional 871 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 42.0% during the first quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 15,084 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,030,000 after purchasing an additional 4,461 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.