Morgan Stanley Begins Coverage on Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) in a research report issued on Tuesday. The firm set an “overweight” rating on the software maker’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com cut Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Fortinet from $99.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on Fortinet from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $97.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $103.72.

Fortinet Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of Fortinet stock traded down $0.33 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $96.34. The stock had a trading volume of 261,363 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,768,775. The stock has a market cap of $74.08 billion, a PE ratio of 42.57, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. Fortinet has a 12 month low of $54.57 and a 12 month high of $114.82. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $102.15 and its 200-day simple moving average is $91.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.39.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Fortinet will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the company’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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 49,039,698 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,576,384,617.36. This represents a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director William H. Neukom bought 328 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $106.33 per share, for a total transaction of $34,876.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 300,006 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,899,637.98. The trade was a 0.11 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold 599,988 shares of company stock worth $59,094,530 in the last 90 days. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Oarsman Capital Inc. lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 188.9% in the fourth quarter. Oarsman Capital Inc. now owns 416 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 272 shares during the last quarter. Graney & King LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Banque Transatlantique SA bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $46,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.