Fortinet’s (FTNT) “Hold” Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC restated their hold rating on shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) in a research report released on Friday morning, Benzinga reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. DZ Bank cut shares of Fortinet from a hold rating to a sell rating and set a $60.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Susquehanna reissued a neutral rating and issued a $80.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a neutral rating and set a $65.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Piper Sandler reiterated a neutral rating and issued a $75.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Fortinet from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $70.37.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $58.81 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $67.53 and a 200-day moving average of $61.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38. Fortinet has a 1 year low of $44.12 and a 1 year high of $81.24. The stock has a market capitalization 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.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 EPS 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%. Fortinet’s revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.29 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 1.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 51,813,638 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,578,767,976.66. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of 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 document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 51,813,638 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,578,767,976.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 118,480 shares of company stock worth $8,021,556. 17.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rise Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Fortinet by 135.6% during the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 377 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Vima LLC bought a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. bought a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Headinvest LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

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.