Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) PT Lowered to $73.00

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price objective reduced by Morgan Stanley from $81.00 to $73.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the software maker’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 23.98% from the company’s previous close.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the company. Barclays dropped their target price on Fortinet from $80.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on Fortinet from $71.00 to $68.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on Fortinet from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $86.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a report on Wednesday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $70.68.

Fortinet Stock Down 9.7 %

Shares of 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 firm has a market cap of $44.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.48, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.19. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $67.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $61.90.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 5,061.85% and a net margin of 22.23%. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.29 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 1.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total transaction of $1,593,300.80. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 10,867,018 shares in the company, valued at $700,705,320.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,992 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,660,648 shares in the company, valued at $3,150,776,958. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the vice president now owns 10,867,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $700,705,320.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 118,480 shares of company stock worth $8,021,556 over the last quarter. 17.54% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 7.0% during the third quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 129,130 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $7,577,000 after buying an additional 8,402 shares in the last quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 26.6% during the third quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 5,717 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $335,000 after buying an additional 1,201 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Fortinet by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 123,042 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $7,220,000 after purchasing an additional 6,815 shares during the period. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. boosted its stake in Fortinet by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. now owns 321,490 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $18,865,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000 shares during the period. Finally, Forsta AP Fonden boosted its stake in Fortinet by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 134,600 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $7,898,000 after purchasing an additional 4,800 shares during the period. 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.