Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Shares Down 4.6% - What's Next?

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report)'s stock price traded down 4.6% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $102.38 and last traded at $102.65. 2,101,805 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 57% from the average session volume of 4,858,948 shares. The stock had previously closed at $107.65.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $95.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 8th. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Fortinet from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report 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 report on Monday, March 31st. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $100.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have given a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $105.62.

Fortinet Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The company has a market cap of $76.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.71 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $103.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $100.96.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The software maker reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 148.79% and a net margin of 30.60%. Fortinet's revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.43 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, Director William H. Neukom bought 335 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 6th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $104.22 per share, for a total transaction of $34,913.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 301,471 shares of the company's stock, valued at $31,419,307.62. This represents a 0.11% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,488 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.10, for a total value of $16,815,576.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $5,452,678,361.90. This trade represents a 0.31% 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.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 71,662,404 shares of the software maker's stock worth $6,898,223,000 after purchasing an additional 3,546,934 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,270,913 shares of the software maker's stock worth $1,440,648,000 after purchasing an additional 387,901 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,570,528 shares of the software maker's stock worth $824,999,000 after purchasing an additional 181,835 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth about $724,048,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 39.3% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker's stock worth $720,150,000 after purchasing an additional 2,151,811 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.