Fortinet’s (FTNT) Hold Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

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

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Mizuho raised their price objective on Fortinet from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Piper Sandler reiterated a neutral rating and set a $75.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a neutral rating and set a $65.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. HSBC cut Fortinet from a hold rating to a reduce rating and set a $57.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an outperform rating and set a $86.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $70.37.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $58.88 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $67.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $61.95. Fortinet has a 12-month low of $44.12 and a 12-month high of $81.24. The company has a current ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38. The company has a market cap of $44.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.48, a PEG ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.08.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. Fortinet had a net margin of 22.23% and a negative return on equity of 2,235.48%. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.34 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.29 EPS. Fortinet’s revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Fortinet will post 1.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.07, for a total transaction of $3,183,021.88. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 51,813,638 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,578,767,976.66. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total value of $1,593,300.80. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 10,867,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $700,705,320.64. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.07, for a total value of $3,183,021.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 51,813,638 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,578,767,976.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 118,480 shares of company stock valued at $8,021,556 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 17.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. Vima LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 135.6% in 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 period. Headinvest LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the third quarter worth about $29,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Institutional investors 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.