Scotiabank Issues Positive Forecast for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Price

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) had its target price increased by research analysts at Scotiabank from $110.00 to $115.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a "sector outperform" rating on the software maker's stock. Scotiabank's price target indicates a potential upside of 18.31% from the stock's previous close.

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on FTNT. Raymond James reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Fortinet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price objective on Fortinet from $88.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Fortinet from $77.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $82.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Fortinet currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $96.33.

Fortinet Trading Up 3.2 %

Fortinet stock traded up $2.97 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $97.20. The company had a trading volume of 3,844,726 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,183,168. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $74.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.09, a PEG ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 1.00. Fortinet has a 12-month low of $54.57 and a 12-month high of $101.00. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $95.58 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $81.10.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The software maker reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.13. Fortinet had a return on equity of 973.30% and a net margin of 26.79%. The business had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.48 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.35 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Fortinet will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 22,916 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.93, for a total value of $2,244,163.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,983,683 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,796,972,076.19. This represents a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 4,250 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.83, for a total transaction of $386,027.50. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 4,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $425,901.87. This represents a 47.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 67,860 shares of company stock valued at $6,469,056 over the last three months. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of FTNT. 1834 Investment Advisors Co. increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 81.9% during the 4th quarter. 1834 Investment Advisors Co. now owns 6,509 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $615,000 after purchasing an additional 2,930 shares during the period. Duncan Williams Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Fortinet by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Duncan Williams Asset Management LLC now owns 11,658 shares of the software maker's stock worth $1,101,000 after acquiring an additional 435 shares during the period. Moody Lynn & Lieberson LLC bought a new stake in Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth about $3,251,000. Jacksonville Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,081,000. Finally, Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC now owns 33,741 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $3,188,000 after purchasing an additional 1,386 shares in the last quarter. 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.