Cantor Fitzgerald Lifts Earnings Estimates for Fortinet

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) - Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their FY2025 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of Fortinet in a research report issued on Thursday, May 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald analyst J. Ruykhaver now forecasts that the software maker will post earnings of $2.12 per share for the year, up from their previous estimate of $2.06. Cantor Fitzgerald has a "Neutral" rating and a $100.00 price objective on the stock. The consensus estimate for Fortinet's current full-year earnings is $2.09 per share.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The software maker reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. Fortinet had a net margin of 29.30% and a return on equity of 256.53%. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.54 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.43 EPS. Fortinet's quarterly revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $105.00 to $95.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on Fortinet from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Roth Capital set a $103.00 price target on Fortinet and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday, February 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $104.80.

Fortinet Stock Performance

FTNT stock traded down $1.82 during trading on Monday, hitting $103.23. 4,513,495 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,955,738. Fortinet has a 1 year low of $54.57 and a 1 year high of $114.82. The company has a market cap of $78.94 billion, a PE ratio of 45.68, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.16. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $98.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $97.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.39.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director William H. Neukom acquired 328 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $106.33 per share, for a total transaction of $34,876.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 300,006 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,899,637.98. This trade represents a 0.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 326,784 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.17, for a total transaction of $32,080,385.28. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 11,000,068 shares in the company, valued at $1,079,876,675.56. This trade represents a 2.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 738,978 shares of company stock valued at $74,135,907. Insiders own 17.20% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Orion Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. Orion Capital Management LLC now owns 14,175 shares of the software maker's stock worth $1,364,000 after purchasing an additional 525 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 23.7% during the 1st quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 1,145,571 shares of the software maker's stock worth $110,273,000 after purchasing an additional 219,379 shares during the period. Synovus Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 30,854 shares of the software maker's stock worth $2,970,000 after purchasing an additional 220 shares during the period. ICONIQ Capital LLC increased its holdings in Fortinet by 20.2% in the 1st quarter. ICONIQ Capital LLC now owns 3,926 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $378,000 after purchasing an additional 660 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quantitative Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the first quarter valued at approximately $615,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.