Piper Sandler Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Price

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price target dropped by Piper Sandler from $90.00 to $85.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “neutral” rating on the software maker’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 3.92% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on FTNT. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 9th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on shares of Fortinet from $105.00 to $78.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on Fortinet from $110.00 to $95.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Fortinet from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $92.48.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of FTNT traded up $1.25 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $81.79. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 7,147,823 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,602,864. The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Fortinet has a one year low of $70.12 and a one year high of $114.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $62.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.08. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $83.16 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $93.11.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The software maker reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.11. Fortinet had a return on equity of 111.46% and a net margin of 30.60%.The business had revenue of $1.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.63 EPS. Fortinet’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. Fortinet has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.660-2.700 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 0.730-0.750 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Fortinet will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 3,546 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.53, for a total transaction of $306,835.38. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 10,492,018 shares in the company, valued at $907,874,317.54. This represents a 0.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,485 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.51, for a total transaction of $13,710,537.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,445,911,452.29. The trade was a 0.31% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 17.20% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Saudi Central Bank bought a new stake in Fortinet in the first quarter valued at $25,000. Clearstead Trust LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet during the first quarter valued at about $28,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 2,184.6% during the 1st quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 297 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 284 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Financial Consulate Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. 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.