Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Rating Lowered to Neutral at Daiwa Capital Markets

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Daiwa Capital Markets from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $86.00 price objective on the software maker’s stock. Daiwa Capital Markets’ price objective suggests a potential upside of 2.80% from the company’s previous close.

Several other brokerages have also commented on FTNT. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 9th. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on Fortinet from $105.00 to $78.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $80.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Fortinet from a “neutral” rating to a “mixed” rating in a report on Monday, October 20th. Finally, Erste Group Bank cut Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $91.62.

Fortinet Trading Up 1.7%

Shares of FTNT opened at $83.66 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $83.36 and a 200-day moving average price of $92.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.33. Fortinet has a fifty-two week low of $70.12 and a fifty-two week high of $114.82. The firm has a market cap of $64.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.33, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.08.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The software maker reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $1.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 111.46% and a net margin of 30.60%.Fortinet’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.63 EPS. Fortinet has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.660-2.700 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 0.730-0.750 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,485 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.51, for a total transaction of $13,710,537.35. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 51,391,879 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,445,911,452.29. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 3,546 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.53, for a total value of $306,835.38. Following the sale, the vice president owned 10,492,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $907,874,317.54. This trade represents a 0.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Corporate insiders own 17.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Fortinet during the 2nd quarter worth about $1,640,900,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Fortinet by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 71,662,404 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $6,898,223,000 after buying an additional 3,546,934 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 40.9% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,971,648 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $561,156,000 after acquiring an additional 1,733,670 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the first quarter worth $153,576,000. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its stake in Fortinet by 17.1% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 7,016,467 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $675,405,000 after purchasing an additional 1,026,277 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.