Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Price Target Cut to $68.00

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price target trimmed by Royal Bank of Canada from $71.00 to $68.00 in a research report report published on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a sector perform rating on the software maker’s stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on FTNT. Barclays reduced their price target on Fortinet from $80.00 to $75.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Fortinet from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Fortinet from $52.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an outperform rating and set a $86.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $70.37.

Fortinet Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT traded down $0.07 on Friday, hitting $58.81. The company had a trading volume of 14,471,111 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,978,480. Fortinet has a 12-month low of $44.12 and a 12-month high of $81.24. The business has a 50 day moving average of $67.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $61.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.48, a PEG ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.08.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.34 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 2,235.48% and a net margin of 22.23%. The company’s revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.29 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 1.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.40, for a total transaction of $1,691,751.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,625,005 shares in the company, valued at $3,471,825,357. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.40, for a total transaction of $1,691,751.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,625,005 shares in the company, valued at $3,471,825,357. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total value 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 118,480 shares of company stock worth $8,021,556. Corporate insiders own 17.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Rise Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 135.6% during the 1st quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 377 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Vima LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. acquired a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Headinvest LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.