The Goldman Sachs Group Issues Positive Forecast for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Price

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price target raised by The Goldman Sachs Group from $114.00 to $130.00 in a research note released on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the software maker’s stock.

FTNT has been the topic of several other research reports. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $135.00 price target (up previously from $120.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday. Mizuho boosted their price target on Fortinet from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $112.00 price objective (up from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on Fortinet from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have given a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Fortinet currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $101.43.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $107.66 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $97.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $84.56. 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 $82.52 billion, a PE ratio of 54.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.01. Fortinet has a fifty-two week low of $54.57 and a fifty-two week high of $110.53.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a net margin of 26.79% and a return on equity of 973.30%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 1.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 17,650 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.66, for a total value of $1,688,399.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $448,549.74. The trade was a 79.01 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total value of $2,150,466.08. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 49,039,698 shares in the company, valued at $4,576,384,617.36. This trade represents a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 67,860 shares of company stock valued at $6,469,056 over the last three months. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Manchester Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 13.5% during the 4th quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 843 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $80,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Fortinet by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,833 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $646,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares during the period. Fielder Capital Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Fielder Capital Group LLC now owns 6,904 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $652,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC now owns 8,346 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $789,000 after buying an additional 114 shares during the period. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,106 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $104,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is 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.