Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Given Consensus Recommendation of "Hold" by Brokerages

Key Points

• Fortinet, Inc. has received a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from 37 analysts, with a target price averaging $97.40 per share.
• The company's recent earnings report showed $0.64 earnings per share, exceeding the consensus estimate, and a revenue increase of 13.6% year-over-year.
• Insider trading activity includes Director William H. Neukom buying shares while CEO Ken Xie sold a significant portion of shares, reflecting mixed sentiment among company insiders.

Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) have been given a consensus rating of "Hold" by the thirty-seven analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, twenty-five have assigned a hold recommendation, eight have given a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $97.40.

Several research analysts have commented on FTNT shares. Morgan Stanley lowered Fortinet from an "overweight" rating to a "reduce" rating and cut their price objective for the company from $110.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. DZ Bank raised Fortinet from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $85.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $125.00 to $95.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $87.00 to $75.00 and set an "underperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $90.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th.

Fortinet Trading Up 0.0%

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $77.65 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Fortinet has a fifty-two week low of $70.12 and a fifty-two week high of $114.82. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $95.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $99.72. The stock has a market cap of $59.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.07.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 111.46%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.57 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, Director William H. Neukom purchased 335 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 6th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $104.22 per share, with a total value of $34,913.70. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 301,471 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $31,419,307.62. This trade represents a 0.11% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total value of $15,607,701.28. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $5,061,072,243.92. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 16.7% in the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,460,656 shares of the software maker's stock worth $154,420,000 after buying an additional 208,985 shares during the last quarter. MASTERINVEST Kapitalanlage GmbH bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 2nd quarter worth about $2,738,000. Neuberger Berman Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 19.6% in the 2nd quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 87,292 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $9,229,000 after purchasing an additional 14,326 shares in the last quarter. Stance Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the second quarter worth about $1,350,000. Finally, B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the second quarter worth about $1,115,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.

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