Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms Hold Rating for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT)

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

A number of other equities analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Mizuho lowered shares of Fortinet from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $68.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $88.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $66.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $77.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on Fortinet from $87.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortinet currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $88.93.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of FTNT opened at $93.12 on Friday. Fortinet has a 1-year low of $50.65 and a 1-year high of $100.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.25. The stock has a market cap of $71.37 billion, a PE ratio of 47.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 1.00. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $82.79 and a 200 day moving average price of $70.69.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,307 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.89, for a total value of $1,908,610.23. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,915,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,005,692,751.70. This trade represents a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 4,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.83, for a total value 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. The trade was a 47.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 51,095 shares of company stock valued at $4,058,575. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet in the first quarter worth about $548,013,000. Marshall Wace LLP increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 198.5% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 6,238,856 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $376,016,000 after acquiring an additional 4,148,520 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 94.9% during the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,755,599 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $346,890,000 after purchasing an additional 2,802,446 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 276.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,685,230 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $285,790,000 after acquiring an additional 2,705,767 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 89.7% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,675,644 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $161,261,000 after purchasing an additional 1,265,162 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

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.