Royal Bank of Canada Lowers Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Price Target to $68.00

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price objective decreased by equities research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $71.00 to $68.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “sector perform” rating on the software maker’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s target price points to a potential upside of 15.49% from the stock’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Mizuho decreased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. DZ Bank downgraded Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $60.00 target price for the company. in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Fortinet from $77.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $65.00 price target for the company. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Two equities 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $70.68.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $58.88 on Friday. Fortinet has a 1 year low of $44.12 and a 1 year high of $81.24. The firm has a market cap of $44.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.48, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.08. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $67.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $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 released its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.29 earnings per share. Fortinet’s revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 1.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at $700,705,320.64. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 10,867,018 shares in the company, valued at $700,705,320.64. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly 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. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 118,480 shares of company stock valued at $8,021,556. Insiders own 17.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 156.8% in the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 9,441,059 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $554,945,000 after purchasing an additional 5,765,174 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at $203,501,000. Sarasin & Partners LLP bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 1st quarter worth about $120,746,000. DSM Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in Fortinet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $75,698,000. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its stake in Fortinet by 358.1% during the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 1,644,139 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $96,478,000 after buying an additional 1,285,197 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently 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.