Royal Bank of Canada Boosts Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Price Target to $72.00

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price objective hoisted by Royal Bank of Canada from $68.00 to $72.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a sector perform rating on the software maker’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Fortinet from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a sector outperform rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $67.00 to $63.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $68.00 to $65.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Guggenheim cut shares of Fortinet from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Twenty-three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $71.31.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of Fortinet stock traded up $1.01 on Wednesday, reaching $69.69. The company had a trading volume of 6,988,618 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,926,143. The firm has a market cap of $53.24 billion, a PE ratio of 45.55, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.98. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $59.59 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $63.74. Fortinet has a 52-week low of $44.12 and a 52-week high of $73.91.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.16. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 2,235.48% and a net margin of 22.23%. The company had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.40 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.31 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Fortinet will post 1.47 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction of $1,386,590.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 10,847,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction of $1,386,590.32. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 10,847,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,235 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.53, for a total value of $1,442,709.55. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,742,483 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,901,640,012.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 91,915 shares of company stock valued at $5,401,638 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Winthrop Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 135.6% during the 1st 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 last quarter. Vima LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Oakworth Capital Inc. purchased a new stake in Fortinet during the second quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. 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.