Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Given New $73.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its target price reduced by Morgan Stanley from $81.00 to $73.00 in a report released on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the software maker’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently issued reports on FTNT. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded shares of Fortinet from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and set a $75.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 13th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a buy rating and issued a $85.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Fortinet from $80.00 to $75.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $71.00 to $68.00 and set a sector perform rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, HSBC downgraded Fortinet from a hold rating to a reduce rating and set a $57.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $70.68.

Fortinet Stock Down 9.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT traded down $6.32 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $58.88. The company had a trading volume of 15,896,615 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,338,557. Fortinet has a 1-year low of $44.12 and a 1-year high of $81.24. The company has a market capitalization of $44.94 billion, a PE ratio of 38.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.06. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $67.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.90.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 5,061.85% and a net margin of 22.23%. Fortinet’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.29 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Fortinet will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.07, for a total transaction of $3,183,021.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 51,813,638 shares in the company, valued at $3,578,767,976.66. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.07, for a total transaction of $3,183,021.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 51,813,638 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,578,767,976.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total value of $1,593,300.80. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,867,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $700,705,320.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 118,480 shares of company stock worth $8,021,556 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 17.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 220.2% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 34,378 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,348,000 after purchasing an additional 23,643 shares during the last quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. raised its stake in Fortinet by 18.5% during the first quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. now owns 5,589 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $382,000 after buying an additional 871 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 42.0% in the 1st quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 15,084 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,030,000 after acquiring an additional 4,461 shares in the last quarter. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $14,847,000. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP bought a new position in Fortinet during the first quarter worth $569,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.