(By Balachander) UBS Securities upgraded its rating on shares of Fortinet Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT), a provider of network security products, to "Buy" from "Neutral", saying current level looks like a particularly attractive opportunity.
Brent Thill, an analyst at UBS, sees upside to Street FY12 estimates and still views FTNT as a potentially attractive takeout target.
The analyst is of the view that market share gains should enable FTNT to grow its product revenue at least twice the rate of the unified threat management (UTM) market. The company is well balanced by geo and customer segment.
"CSCO and JNPR combined do over $2B/year in network security, a revenue pool that is ripe for the more focused/innovative vendors like FTNT to grab and FTNT should benefit from increased VAR support post Dell/SNWL acquisition," Thill wrote in a note.
FTNT is prone to increasing competition from CHKP's Fall 2011 entry (61k series) into the high-end service provider market, the analyst said.
Thill has a price target of $28.00 on the stock.
Sunnyvale, California-based Fortinet provides security and networking products, including firewall, virtual private network, application control, antivirus, intrusion prevention, Web filtering and vulnerability management, among others.
The stock, which has been trading in the 52-week range between $15.78 and $28.82, is currently trading 3.11 percent higher at $21.53.