Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Price Down 0.6%

Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) fell 0.6% during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $74.08 and last traded at $74.08. 483,816 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 92% from the average session volume of 5,849,220 shares. The stock had previously closed at $74.49.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on FTNT. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on Fortinet from $72.00 to $67.00 and set an "in-line" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on Fortinet from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. TD Cowen upgraded Fortinet from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $75.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $78.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Fortinet from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Twenty-three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $71.31.

Fortinet Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $57.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $62.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $64.23.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.40 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 2,235.48% and a net margin of 22.23%. The firm's revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.31 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,693 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.06, for a total value of $1,731,010.58. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,842,522 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,568,434,657.32. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,693 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.06, for a total value of $1,731,010.58. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,842,522 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,568,434,657.32. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total value 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 $608,626,179.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 115,608 shares of company stock valued at $7,132,649. 18.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 664.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 35,137,089 shares of the software maker's stock worth $2,400,215,000 after buying an additional 30,542,551 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter worth $548,013,000. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 198.5% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 6,238,856 shares of the software maker's stock worth $376,016,000 after buying an additional 4,148,520 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at about $203,501,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in Fortinet by 94.9% in the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,755,599 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $346,890,000 after purchasing an additional 2,802,446 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.