Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Price Target Cut to $70.00 by Analysts at Jefferies Financial Group

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its target price reduced by Jefferies Financial Group from $75.00 to $70.00 in a research report released on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a hold rating on the software maker’s stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on FTNT. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Fortinet from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a neutral rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Capital One Financial downgraded shares of Fortinet from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $60.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report 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 assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $72.19.

Fortinet Stock Down 1.0 %

FTNT opened at $63.40 on Thursday. Fortinet has a fifty-two week low of $44.12 and a fifty-two week high of $81.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.72, a PEG ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 1.08. The company’s 50-day moving average is $68.50 and its 200 day moving average is $61.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.06.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 5th. The software maker reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.08. Fortinet had a net margin of 21.64% and a negative return on equity of 7,572.46%. The firm had revenue of $1.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.41 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.38 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Fortinet will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,992 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,660,648 shares in the company, valued at $3,150,776,958. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,992 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.75, for a total value of $1,553,482.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,660,648 shares in the company, valued at $3,150,776,958. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 38,369 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.45, for a total transaction of $2,549,620.05. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 29,887,018 shares in the company, valued at $1,985,992,346.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 132,139 shares of company stock valued at $8,977,876. 17.54% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. Covestor Ltd lifted its stake in Fortinet by 53.3% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 164 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $56,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC lifted its position 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 last quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. boosted its stake in Fortinet by 20.4% in the first quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 430 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $147,000 after buying an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Vima LLC bought a new position in Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by 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.