Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) PT Lowered to $70.00

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price objective decreased by analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from $75.00 to $70.00 in a research note issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “hold” rating on the software maker’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 8.33% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $75.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $77.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $60.00 to $62.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Capital One Financial lowered shares of Fortinet from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $72.19.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT traded down $0.04 on Thursday, hitting $64.62. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 534,632 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,889,876. Fortinet has a 12-month low of $44.12 and a 12-month high of $81.24. The company has a market capitalization of $49.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.06. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $68.72 and a 200-day moving average of $61.50.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 5th. The software maker reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.08. Fortinet had a net margin of 21.64% and a negative return on equity of 7,572.46%. The company had revenue of $1.42 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.41 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.38 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Fortinet will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,992 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.75, for a total value of $1,553,482.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,660,648 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,150,776,958. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,992 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.75, for a total value of $1,553,482.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,660,648 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,150,776,958. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 38,369 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.45, for a total transaction of $2,549,620.05. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 29,887,018 shares in the company, valued at $1,985,992,346.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 132,139 shares of company stock worth $8,977,876. 17.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Aviance Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at about $205,000. Financial Partners Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the first quarter worth about $1,182,000. Trilogy Capital Inc. bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the first quarter worth about $415,000. Meritas Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the first quarter worth about $226,000. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 51.7% during the first quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 20,790 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,420,000 after buying an additional 7,086 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.