Fortinet Inc. (FTNT) Issues Q3 Earnings Guidance

Fortinet Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) issued an update on its third quarter earnings guidance on Thursday morning. The company provided EPS guidance of $0.17-0.18 for the period, compared to the Thomson Reuters consensus EPS estimate of $0.18. The company issued revenue guidance of $319-324 million, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $320.36 million.Fortinet also updated its FY16 guidance to $0.69-0.71 EPS.

Fortinet Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) traded up 1.42% during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $37.17. 2,435,082 shares of the stock were exchanged. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $33.55 and its 200 day moving average price is $30.59. Fortinet Inc. has a 1-year low of $23.16 and a 1-year high of $50.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.38 billion and a P/E ratio of 2065.00.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 28th. The company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.14. The business earned $311.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $304.71 million. The company’s revenue was up 29.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.11 EPS. Analysts expect that Fortinet Inc. will post $0.70 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FTNT has been the subject of several analyst reports. Zacks Investment Research lowered shares of Fortinet from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a research note on Monday, July 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a buy rating on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Wednesday, June 8th. Piper Jaffray Cos. reiterated a neutral rating and issued a $33.00 price objective (up previously from $30.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Wednesday, April 27th. Wunderlich increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $37.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 27th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of Fortinet from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Fortinet has an average rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $38.79.

In other Fortinet news, CAO Keith Jensen sold 1,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.60, for a total value of $34,760.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 218 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,888.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP John Whittle sold 1,435 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.48, for a total transaction of $46,608.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 6,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $223,007.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here.

Fortinet, Inc provides cyber security solutions to enterprises, service providers and government organizations across the world. The Company’s flagship network security solution consists of FortiGate physical, virtual machine and cloud platforms, which provide integrated security and networking functions to protect data, applications and users from network-and content-level security threats.