Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Upgraded to Strong-Buy at Hsbc Global Res

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) was upgraded by Hsbc Global Res from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other analysts also recently commented on the company. Citigroup increased their price objective on Fortinet from $66.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. HSBC raised shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $83.00 to $111.00 in a report on Monday. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Monday. Finally, Wedbush boosted their target price on Fortinet from $78.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have given a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $79.52.

Fortinet Stock Performance

FTNT opened at $97.18 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45. Fortinet has a 1-year low of $49.70 and a 1-year high of $97.35. The company has a market cap of $74.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.08, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.00. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $79.15 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $68.40.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,307 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.89, for a total value of $1,908,610.23. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,915,530 shares in the company, valued at $4,005,692,751.70. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders sold 70,538 shares of company stock worth $5,403,559 in the last quarter. 18.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,052,487 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,648,665,000 after purchasing an additional 779,271 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings 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 worth $2,400,215,000 after purchasing an additional 30,542,551 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB lifted its position in Fortinet by 1.7% during the second quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,156,797 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $491,610,000 after buying an additional 134,366 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 198.5% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 6,238,856 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $376,016,000 after buying an additional 4,148,520 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 94.9% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,755,599 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $346,890,000 after buying an additional 2,802,446 shares during the period. 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.