Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Given New $78.00 Price Target at Evercore ISI

Key Points

• Fortinet's price target was lowered by Evercore ISI from $105.00 to $78.00, indicating a potential upside of just 3.59% from its previous close.
• A significant number of analysts have revised their ratings for Fortinet, with 24 issuing a hold rating and others lowering their price targets substantially.
• The company's quarterly earnings report revealed a 13.6% year-over-year revenue increase to $1.63 billion, with earnings per share beating estimates at $0.64.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) had its price objective dropped by research analysts at Evercore ISI from $105.00 to $78.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an "in-line" rating on the software maker's stock. Evercore ISI's price target would suggest a potential upside of 3.59% from the stock's previous close.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Fortinet from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Mizuho decreased their price objective on Fortinet from $87.00 to $75.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Fortinet from $105.00 to $87.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Wedbush decreased their price objective on Fortinet from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Fortinet from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, July 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-four have issued a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $97.93.

Fortinet Stock Performance

FTNT opened at $75.30 on Friday. The business's 50-day moving average price is $102.31 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $101.75. Fortinet has a 1 year low of $67.97 and a 1 year high of $114.82. The company has a market capitalization of $57.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.00, a P/E/G ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 1.29.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.05. Fortinet had a return on equity of 123.05% and a net margin of 30.60%. The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.57 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Fortinet will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Fortinet news, 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 completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 9,730,560 shares in the company, valued at approximately $958,265,548.80. This trade represents a 4.67% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 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 value of $15,607,701.28. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 51,391,879 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,061,072,243.92. The trade was 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 Trading of Fortinet

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Dover Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 1.0% in the second quarter. Dover Advisors LLC now owns 9,451 shares of the software maker's stock worth $999,000 after acquiring an additional 94 shares in the last quarter. Balboa Wealth Partners grew its stake in Fortinet by 4.3% in the second quarter. Balboa Wealth Partners now owns 2,330 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $246,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the period. Hemington Wealth Management grew its stake in Fortinet by 13.2% in the second quarter. Hemington Wealth Management now owns 851 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $89,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares during the period. Peloton Wealth Strategists grew its stake in Fortinet by 2.4% in the first quarter. Peloton Wealth Strategists now owns 4,330 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $417,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Trust Co. of Vermont grew its stake in Fortinet by 3.6% in the second quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 2,852 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $302,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. 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.

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