Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Lowered to “Underperform” at Mizuho

Mizuho lowered shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) from a neutral rating to an underperform rating in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage currently has $68.00 target price on the software maker’s stock.

Several other research firms also recently issued reports on FTNT. Barclays upped their price objective on Fortinet from $74.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $61.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Guggenheim downgraded shares of Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $68.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-three have issued a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $72.71.

Fortinet Stock Up 0.3 %

FTNT stock opened at $81.07 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $61.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45. Fortinet has a 12 month low of $44.12 and a 12 month high of $83.77. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $76.78 and a 200-day moving average price of $66.65.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.40 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 23.71% and a negative return on equity of 2,160.10%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.31 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 1.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,693 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.06, for a total transaction of $1,731,010.58. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,842,522 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,568,434,657.32. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,693 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.06, for a total transaction of $1,731,010.58. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,842,522 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,568,434,657.32. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total value of $1,386,590.32. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,847,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 95,250 shares of company stock worth $6,790,149. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Columbus Macro LLC purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter worth about $242,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in Fortinet by 29.5% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 152,532 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $11,829,000 after buying an additional 34,727 shares in the last quarter. Compass Ion Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $293,000. Eagle Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Fortinet by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 25,772 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,999,000 after buying an additional 141 shares in the last quarter. Finally, OLD National Bancorp IN purchased a new position in Fortinet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $10,443,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

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.