Morgan Stanley Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its target price upped by equities researchers at Morgan Stanley from $105.00 to $106.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the software maker’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price indicates a potential upside of 14.66% from the stock’s previous close.

FTNT has been the subject of several other research reports. Barclays lifted their price objective on Fortinet from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $71.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have issued a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $88.93.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $92.45 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $70.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.69, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. Fortinet has a 1-year low of $50.65 and a 1-year high of $100.59. The company has a 50 day moving average of $81.71 and a 200-day moving average of $69.89.

Insider Activity

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,307 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.89, for a total transaction of $1,908,610.23. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,915,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,005,692,751.70. This represents a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 4,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.83, for a total transaction of $386,027.50. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $425,901.87. This represents a 47.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 51,095 shares of company stock worth $4,058,575 over the last quarter. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Fortinet by 664.8% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 35,137,089 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,400,215,000 after purchasing an additional 30,542,551 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the first quarter valued at $548,013,000. Marshall Wace LLP increased its holdings in Fortinet by 198.5% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 6,238,856 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $376,016,000 after buying an additional 4,148,520 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in Fortinet by 94.9% during the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,755,599 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $346,890,000 after acquiring an additional 2,802,446 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its stake in Fortinet by 276.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,685,230 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $285,790,000 after acquiring an additional 2,705,767 shares during the last quarter. 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.