Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Shares Gap Down on Analyst Downgrade

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) gapped down before the market opened on Thursday after Barclays lowered their price target on the stock from $90.00 to $88.00. The stock had previously closed at $85.99, but opened at $76.05. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Fortinet shares last traded at $80.0990, with a volume of 4,310,066 shares traded.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on FTNT. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Morgan Stanley restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $67.00 price objective (down from $78.00) on shares of Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $105.00 to $87.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, August 8th. Finally, Cowen cut shares of Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $96.97.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 3,546 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.53, for a total transaction of $306,835.38. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 10,492,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $907,874,317.54. The trade was a 0.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,485 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.51, for a total transaction of $13,710,537.35. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $4,445,911,452.29. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders own 17.20% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 6.8% during the second quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 1,305,352 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $137,800,000 after buying an additional 82,937 shares during the period. Warther Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 39.7% during the second quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 182,160 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $19,258,000 after purchasing an additional 51,750 shares during the period. Cooper Financial Group purchased a new position in Fortinet in the second quarter worth $2,653,000. Mainstay Capital Management LLC ADV increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 105.8% in the second quarter. Mainstay Capital Management LLC ADV now owns 16,816 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,778,000 after buying an additional 8,643 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Motley Fool Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 15.0% in the second quarter. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC now owns 50,464 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $5,335,000 after buying an additional 6,566 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $61.21 billion, a PE ratio of 31.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.33. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $83.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $93.28.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The software maker reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.11. Fortinet had a net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 111.46%. The company had revenue of $1.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.63 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Fortinet has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.660-2.700 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 0.730-0.750 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

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.