Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Cut to Hold at Baird R W

Baird R W cut shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Monday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. StockNews.com upgraded Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.73.

Fortinet Stock Up 2.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $105.07 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $96.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $84.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. Fortinet has a 12-month low of $54.57 and a 12-month high of $105.12. The company has a market cap of $80.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.07, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.01.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The software maker reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.48 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 973.30% and a net margin of 26.79%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.35 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 1.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director William H. Neukom acquired 355 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $98.50 per share, for a total transaction of $34,967.50. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 150,245 shares in the company, valued at $14,799,132.50. This trade represents a 0.24 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total transaction of $2,150,466.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 49,039,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,576,384,617.36. This represents a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 67,860 shares of company stock valued at $6,469,056. Insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Norden Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at $4,216,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Fortinet by 35.1% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 3,907 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $372,000 after acquiring an additional 1,014 shares during the period. Chase Investment Counsel Corp bought a new stake in Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth about $1,030,000. Metis Global Partners LLC raised its position in Fortinet by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 26,699 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,523,000 after acquiring an additional 1,178 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SVB Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,437,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.