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

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price objective lowered by Barclays from $75.00 to $70.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the software maker’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on the stock. Susquehanna decreased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $80.00 to $65.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 6th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $81.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 18th. HSBC reduced their target price on shares of Fortinet from $57.00 to $54.00 and set a reduce rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $69.86.

Fortinet Price Performance

NASDAQ FTNT opened at $58.79 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $59.86 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $63.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.91 billion, a PE ratio of 38.43, a P/E/G ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.98. Fortinet has a 1 year low of $44.12 and a 1 year high of $81.24.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 22.23% and a negative return on equity of 2,235.48%. The business’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 firm earned $0.29 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 1.47 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,992 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.75, for a total transaction of $1,553,482.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,660,648 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,150,776,958. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,992 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.75, for a total transaction of $1,553,482.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,660,648 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,150,776,958. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director William H. Neukom purchased 586 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 6th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $59.55 per share, with a total value of $34,896.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 295,778 shares in the company, valued at $17,613,579.90. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 91,638 shares of company stock valued at $5,705,568 in the last three months. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Fortinet by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,052,487 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,648,665,000 after purchasing an additional 779,271 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Fortinet by 664.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 35,137,089 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,400,215,000 after purchasing an additional 30,542,551 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at about $548,013,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its stake in Fortinet by 7.6% during the 1st quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 3,996,822 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $273,023,000 after purchasing an additional 283,339 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at about $203,501,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.