Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) has earned an average rating of “Hold” from the thirty-six brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-seven have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $90.1111.

Several brokerages recently commented on FTNT. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $88.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on Fortinet from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $85.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Citigroup cut Fortinet from a “neutral” rating to a “mixed” rating in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on Fortinet from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 6th.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $77.88 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $82.02 and its 200-day simple moving average is $87.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $57.92 billion, a PE ratio of 32.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 1.07. Fortinet has a fifty-two week low of $70.12 and a fifty-two week high of $114.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.03.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The software maker reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $1.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 28.58% and a return on equity of 118.27%. The firm’s revenue was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.63 earnings per share. Fortinet has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.660-2.700 EPS and its Q4 2025 guidance at 0.730-0.750 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 75,581,275 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $6,354,874,000 after purchasing an additional 2,894,355 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 1.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 29,660,558 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,493,860,000 after purchasing an additional 477,397 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 5.2% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,916,974 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,783,091,000 after purchasing an additional 828,569 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Fortinet in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,640,900,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Fortinet by 17.0% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,816,519 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $909,453,000 after buying an additional 1,568,337 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Fortinet Company Profile

Fortinet, Inc (NASDAQ: FTNT) is a multinational cybersecurity company that develops and delivers integrated security solutions for enterprise, service provider and government customers worldwide. Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, the company was co‑founded by Ken Xie and Michael Xie. Ken Xie serves as chairman and chief executive officer, and the company operates through a global sales, channel and services organization to support customers across the Americas, EMEA and Asia‑Pacific.

Fortinet’s product portfolio centers on network security appliances and software, with its FortiGate next‑generation firewalls and the FortiOS operating system forming a core platform.