Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Receives $70.03 Consensus Price Target from Brokerages

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) has been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the thirty-two ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $70.03.

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on FTNT. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Fortinet from $81.00 to $73.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of Fortinet from $72.00 to $67.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $81.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. Finally, HSBC cut their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $57.00 to $54.00 and set a “reduce” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 3rd.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $60.73 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $46.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.98. Fortinet has a 52 week low of $44.12 and a 52 week high of $81.24. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $60.27 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $63.78.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. Fortinet had a net margin of 22.23% and a negative return on equity of 2,235.48%. The firm had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.34 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.29 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 1.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total transaction of $1,593,300.80. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 10,867,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $700,705,320.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total transaction of $1,593,300.80. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 10,867,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $700,705,320.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,235 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.53, for a total transaction of $1,442,709.55. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,742,483 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,901,640,012.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 91,638 shares of company stock valued at $5,705,568 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. LPL Financial LLC raised its holdings in Fortinet by 34.6% in the third quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 312,720 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $18,350,000 after buying an additional 80,392 shares during the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Fortinet by 1.3% in the third quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 40,529 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,378,000 after buying an additional 526 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. raised its holdings in Fortinet by 79.6% in the third quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 9,562 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $561,000 after buying an additional 4,237 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia raised its holdings in Fortinet by 245.6% in the third quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 580,535 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $34,064,000 after buying an additional 412,555 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new position in Fortinet in the third quarter worth about $510,000. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

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.