Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Price Target Cut to $73.00 by Analysts at Morgan Stanley

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price target reduced by Morgan Stanley from $81.00 to $73.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “overweight” rating on the software maker’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target suggests a potential upside of 23.98% from the company’s current price.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on FTNT. Capital One Financial cut shares of Fortinet from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of Fortinet from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $75.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, DZ Bank lowered Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $60.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have assigned a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $70.68.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT traded down $6.32 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $58.88. 15,894,899 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,879,701. Fortinet has a one year low of $44.12 and a one year high of $81.24. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $67.71 and a 200 day moving average of $61.90. The company has a market cap of $44.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 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.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.34 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 7,572.46% and a net margin of 21.64%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.29 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the company’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 value of $1,593,300.80. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 10,867,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $700,705,320.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,992 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.75, for a total value of $1,553,482.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,660,648 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,150,776,958. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through 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 completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,867,018 shares in the company, valued at $700,705,320.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 118,480 shares of company stock worth $8,021,556 in the last ninety days. 17.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cito Capital Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 3rd quarter valued at $660,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 7.3% during the fourth quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 507,306 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $29,693,000 after purchasing an additional 34,582 shares during the period. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 2,092.4% during the fourth quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 40,603 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,411,000 after purchasing an additional 38,751 shares in the last quarter. Alamar Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Fortinet by 12.5% during the 3rd quarter. Alamar Capital Management LLC now owns 63,788 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,743,000 after buying an additional 7,110 shares during the period. Finally, Marshall Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth $1,487,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.