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

Key Points

• Fortinet, Inc. has received an average recommendation of "Hold" from 38 research firms, with two analysts suggesting a sell and eight recommending a buy.
• Recent target price adjustments include Citigroup lowering its target to $85.00 from $110.00, while Scotiabank has brought its target down to $85.00 from $115.00.
• The company's shares opened at $83.58 and have experienced a 12-month low of $70.12 and a high of $114.82 amid recent insider selling activities.

Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) have been given an average recommendation of "Hold" by the thirty-eight research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, twenty-six have given a hold recommendation, eight have assigned a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $97.0333.

A number of brokerages have weighed in on FTNT. Citigroup reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $85.00 target price (down previously from $110.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday, August 18th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Scotiabank cut their target price on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $85.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Fortinet from $105.00 to $87.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price objective on Fortinet from $110.00 to $95.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total transaction of $46,935,174.08. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,391,879 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $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. 17.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Cooper Financial Group purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the second quarter worth about $2,653,000. Mainstay Capital Management LLC ADV lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 105.8% during the second quarter. Mainstay Capital Management LLC ADV now owns 16,816 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $1,778,000 after purchasing an additional 8,643 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 40.7% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 73,186 shares of the software maker's stock worth $7,045,000 after purchasing an additional 21,177 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 38.4% during the 1st quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 6,794 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $654,000 after purchasing an additional 1,885 shares during the period. Finally, 1834 Investment Advisors Co. lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. 1834 Investment Advisors Co. now owns 12,332 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $1,304,000 after buying an additional 353 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of FTNT opened at $83.58 on Thursday. Fortinet has a twelve month low of $70.12 and a twelve month high of $114.82. The company has a market capitalization of $64.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.09. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $80.91 and a 200 day moving average of $94.28. 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 (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.05. Fortinet had a return on equity of 111.46% and a net margin of 30.60%.The business had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.57 EPS. The company's revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate 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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