Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Given Average Recommendation of "Hold" by Brokerages

Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the thirty-three brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Twenty-three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, nine have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $71.57.

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Fortinet from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. DZ Bank raised Fortinet from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. UBS Group upped their target price on Fortinet from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Hsbc Global Res raised Fortinet from a "moderate sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Fortinet from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,538 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.94, for a total transaction of $1,763,937.72. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,878,806 shares in the company, valued at $3,662,977,721.64. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,538 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.94, for a total transaction of $1,763,937.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,878,806 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,662,977,721.64. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction of $1,386,590.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 10,847,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 96,210 shares of company stock worth $6,337,801. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of FTNT. Vima LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Winthrop Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Fortinet in the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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. Creekmur Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Oakworth Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the second quarter worth $33,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company's stock.

Fortinet Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $78.01 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $72.69 and a 200 day simple moving average of $65.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $59.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.00. Fortinet has a fifty-two week low of $44.12 and a fifty-two week high of $78.50. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.16. Fortinet had a net margin of 23.71% and a negative return on equity of 2,160.10%. The company had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.40 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.31 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Fortinet will post 1.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.