Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Price Target Cut to $70.00 by Analysts at Piper Sandler

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its target price trimmed by Piper Sandler from $75.00 to $70.00 in a report issued on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the software maker’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on FTNT. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on shares of Fortinet from $81.00 to $75.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Friday. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a neutral rating and set a $65.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. DZ Bank downgraded Fortinet from a hold rating to a sell rating and set a $60.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Scotiabank raised their target price on Fortinet from $70.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a sector outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $86.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a report on Wednesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $70.68.

Fortinet Trading Down 9.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT traded down $6.32 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $58.88. 15,896,615 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,338,557. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.48, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.08. Fortinet has a twelve month low of $44.12 and a twelve month high of $81.24. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $67.53 and its 200-day moving average price is $61.90. 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 announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.34 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 5,061.85% and a net margin of 22.23%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.29 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Fortinet will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of Fortinet 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,625,005 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,471,825,357. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the vice president now directly owns 10,867,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $700,705,320.64. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.40, for a total value of $1,691,751.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,625,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,471,825,357. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 118,480 shares of company stock valued at $8,021,556. 17.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vima LLC purchased a new stake in Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 135.6% in the 1st quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 377 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 217 shares during the period. Headinvest LLC bought a new position in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. bought a new stake in Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. 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.