Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Trading Down 1.7% – Time to Sell?

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) shares dropped 1.7% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $99.08 and last traded at $100.01. Approximately 1,143,699 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 76% from the average daily volume of 4,802,233 shares. The stock had previously closed at $101.72.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FTNT has been the topic of several research reports. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on Fortinet from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Fortinet from $103.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Fortinet from $105.00 to $106.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Fortinet from $77.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Fortinet from $85.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $103.72.

Fortinet Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $77.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.81, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $102.06 and a 200-day moving average of $90.93.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director William H. Neukom purchased 328 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $106.33 per share, with a total value of $34,876.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 300,006 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,899,637.98. This trade represents a 0.11 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total value of $2,150,466.08. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 49,039,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,576,384,617.36. This trade represents a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 87,120 shares of company stock worth $8,991,409. 18.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of FTNT. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet during the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Oarsman Capital Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 188.9% during the 4th 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 period. Graney & King LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, Banque Transatlantique SA bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.