Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Price Target Lowered to $75.00 at Barclays

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its target price reduced by equities research analysts at Barclays from $80.00 to $75.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “equal weight” rating on the software maker’s stock. Barclays‘s target price would suggest a potential upside of 27.38% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on FTNT. DZ Bank lowered shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $60.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. StockNews.com cut Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $65.00 price objective on the stock. Mizuho dropped their price objective on Fortinet from $70.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Fortinet from $52.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $70.68.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Fortinet stock traded down $6.32 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $58.88. The company had a trading volume of 15,896,615 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,338,557. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $67.53 and a 200 day moving average of $61.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.06. The firm has a market cap of $44.94 billion, a PE ratio of 38.48, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.08. Fortinet has a one year low of $44.12 and a one year high of $81.24.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly 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. 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.34 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.29 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Fortinet will post 1.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were 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 owns 48,625,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,471,825,357. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $700,705,320.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.40, for a total value of $1,691,751.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,625,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,471,825,357. 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 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 17.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Rise Advisors LLC lifted its stake in 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 in the last quarter. Vima LLC bought a new stake in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Headinvest LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

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.