Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Rating Lowered to Underperform at Mizuho

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) was downgraded by research analysts at Mizuho from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating in a report issued on Thursday, FinViz reports. They currently have a $68.00 price objective on the software maker’s stock. Mizuho’s target price would indicate a potential downside of 17.19% from the company’s current price.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Fortinet from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Fortinet from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Piper Sandler raised Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $61.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-two have given a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $72.71.

Fortinet Stock Performance

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $82.12 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $62.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 1.00. Fortinet has a 52-week low of $44.12 and a 52-week high of $83.77. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $76.30 and its 200 day moving average price is $66.47. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.16. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 2,160.10% and a net margin of 23.71%. The company had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.31 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Fortinet will post 1.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,307 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.89, for a total value of $1,908,610.23. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,915,530 shares in the company, valued at $4,005,692,751.70. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,307 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.89, for a total transaction of $1,908,610.23. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,915,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,005,692,751.70. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction of $1,386,590.32. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 10,847,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 95,250 shares of company stock worth $6,790,149. 18.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Winthrop Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 135.6% during the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 377 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 217 shares during the period. Oakworth Capital Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet during the second quarter worth $33,000. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 61.2% in the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 627 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 238 shares during the period. Finally, City State Bank grew its holdings in Fortinet by 900.0% during the 3rd quarter. City State Bank now owns 500 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.