Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) was downgraded by J P Morgan Chase & Co from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $50.00 price target on the software maker’s stock. J P Morgan Chase & Co’s target price suggests a potential upside of 14.57% from the stock’s previous close.
Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the company. Piper Jaffray Companies set a $50.00 target price on Fortinet and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 25th. Credit Suisse Group started coverage on Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, September 5th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $33.00 target price for the company. UBS boosted their target price on Fortinet from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 27th. Zacks Investment Research lowered Fortinet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 17th. Finally, Deutsche Bank upgraded Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $36.00 to $48.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Fortinet currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $44.55.
Shares of Fortinet (FTNT) traded up $0.93 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $43.64. The stock had a trading volume of 2,382,846 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,316,419. The firm has a market cap of $7,589.00, a price-to-earnings ratio of 79.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.38 and a beta of 0.92. Fortinet has a fifty-two week low of $28.50 and a fifty-two week high of $43.80.
Fortinet declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, October 26th that allows the company to buyback $400.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the software maker to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.
In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 3,585 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.60, for a total transaction of $138,381.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 6,714,500 shares in the company, valued at $259,179,700. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Ming Hsieh sold 5,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.64, for a total value of $211,360.48. Following the transaction, the director now owns 331 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,120.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 59,606 shares of company stock valued at $2,453,806. Corporate insiders own 16.40% of the company’s stock.
Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 1.1% during the second quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 10,364 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $388,000 after buying an additional 114 shares during the last quarter. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 2.7% during the second quarter. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC now owns 7,492 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $288,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. TRUE Private Wealth Advisors increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 3.4% during the second quarter. TRUE Private Wealth Advisors now owns 6,457 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $241,000 after purchasing an additional 211 shares during the period. KCM Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 4.2% during the second quarter. KCM Investment Advisors LLC now owns 9,990 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $374,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the period. Finally, Pinnacle Associates Ltd. increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 6.3% during the second quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 7,755 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $290,000 after purchasing an additional 460 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.76% of the company’s stock.
About Fortinet
Fortinet, Inc is a network security company. The Company provides cyber security solutions to a range of enterprises, service providers and government organizations across the world. Its network security solution consists of FortiGate physical, virtual machine and cloud platforms, which provide integrated security and networking functions to protect data, applications and users from network-and content-level security threats.
