Fortinet Inc (FTNT) Receives $37.96 Average Price Target from Brokerages

Fortinet Inc (NASDAQ:FTNT) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Buy” from the twenty-seven brokerages that are covering the firm. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nineteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $40.23.

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on FTNT shares. TheStreet upgraded Fortinet from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 2nd. Dougherty & Co boosted their price objective on Fortinet from $38.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Fortinet from $36.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 17th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $35.00 price objective (up previously from $30.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 3rd. Finally, Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $42.00 price objective (up previously from $40.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Monday, February 6th.

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In other news, CAO Keith Jensen sold 1,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.97, for a total value of $49,361.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 2,545 shares in the company, valued at approximately $96,633.65. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Matto Andrew H. Del sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.97, for a total value of $303,760.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 23,315 shares in the company, valued at $885,270.55. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 150,512 shares of company stock worth $5,351,862 over the last quarter. 16.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Company LTD increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 5,376.8% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Company LTD now owns 529,386 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $19,550,000 after buying an additional 519,720 shares during the last quarter. World Asset Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 34.0% in the third quarter. World Asset Management Inc now owns 9,546 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $353,000 after buying an additional 2,420 shares during the last quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 116.6% in the third quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 32,065 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,184,000 after buying an additional 17,260 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 1.9% in the third quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 21,167 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $782,000 after buying an additional 393 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Great West Life Assurance Co. Can increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 4.3% in the third quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 111,500 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,115,000 after buying an additional 4,561 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.18% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) traded up 2.65% during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $39.53. 3,230,531 shares of the stock traded hands. The company has a market cap of $6.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 219.61 and a beta of 1.28. Fortinet has a 52-week low of $28.51 and a 52-week high of $39.64. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $37.29 and its 200-day moving average is $33.73.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 2nd. The software maker reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.09. The firm earned $362.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $344.59 million. Fortinet had a return on equity of 4.74% and a net margin of 2.09%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 22.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.18 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Fortinet will post $0.89 EPS for the current year.

Fortinet Company Profile

Fortinet, Inc is a network security company. The Company provides cyber security solutions to a range of enterprises, service providers and government organizations across the world. Its network security solution consists of FortiGate physical, virtual machine and cloud platforms, which provide integrated security and networking functions to protect data, applications and users from network-and content-level security threats.