Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Hold" from Analysts

Key Points

• Fortinet, Inc. has received a consensus rating of "Hold" from analysts covering the stock, with 25 hold ratings, 8 buy ratings, and 2 strong buy ratings among 37 brokerages.
• CEO Ken Xie and VP Michael Xie recently sold significant shares of Fortinet, indicating a decrease in insider ownership of the company's stock.
• The company reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $0.64, exceeding analyst expectations, with a year-over-year revenue growth of 13.6%.

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) has earned a consensus rating of "Hold" from the thirty-seven brokerages that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-five have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $97.0333.

A number of brokerages recently commented on FTNT. Cowen cut shares of Fortinet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Fortinet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. KeyCorp cut shares of Fortinet from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $105.00 to $78.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Finally, DZ Bank raised shares of Fortinet from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $85.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 8th.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total transaction of $15,607,701.28. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $5,061,072,243.92. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total transaction of $46,935,174.08. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 9,730,560 shares in the company, valued at approximately $958,265,548.80. The trade was a 4.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 17.20% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. Saudi Central Bank purchased a new position in Fortinet in the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. raised its holdings in Fortinet by 703.1% in the first quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 257 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 225 shares during the period. Clearstead Trust LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet in the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd raised its holdings in Fortinet by 2,184.6% in the first quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 297 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 284 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $84.21 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $64.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.55, a PEG ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 1.12. Fortinet has a 52 week low of $70.12 and a 52 week high of $114.82. The company's 50-day moving average price is $87.36 and its 200 day moving average price is $95.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.63 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 111.46%. The firm's revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.57 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.

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