Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Price Target Cut to $70.00

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its target price lowered by stock analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $82.00 to $70.00 in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “market perform” rating on the software maker’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ price objective suggests a potential upside of 18.89% from the company’s previous close.

FTNT has been the subject of a number of other reports. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Truist Financial cut their target price on shares of Fortinet from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, DZ Bank downgraded shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $60.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $70.68.

Fortinet Price Performance

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $58.88 on Friday. Fortinet has a 1 year low of $44.12 and a 1 year high of $81.24. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $67.53 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $61.92. The company has a market cap of $44.94 billion, a PE ratio of 38.48, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly 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. Fortinet had a net margin of 22.23% and a negative return on equity of 5,061.85%. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.34 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.29 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Fortinet will post 1.4 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the vice president now directly owns 10,867,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $700,705,320.64. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.40, for a total value of $1,691,751.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,625,005 shares in the company, valued at $3,471,825,357. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total transaction of $1,593,300.80. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 10,867,018 shares in the company, 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 valued at $8,021,556 over the last quarter. 17.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FTNT. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in Fortinet by 156.8% in the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 9,441,059 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $554,945,000 after buying an additional 5,765,174 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 1.3% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,664,124 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $508,411,000 after purchasing an additional 108,548 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 5.1% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,595,608 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $328,350,000 after purchasing an additional 269,202 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Fortinet by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,789,106 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $222,345,000 after purchasing an additional 153,119 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth about $203,501,000. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

About Fortinet

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.