Fortinet's (FTNT) Underweight Rating Reiterated at Morgan Stanley

Key Points

• Morgan Stanley has reaffirmed an "underweight" rating for Fortinet, downgrading its price target from $78.00 to $67.00, indicating a potential downside of 14.94% from the stock's previous close.
• Despite the downgrade by Morgan Stanley, other analysts have given mixed ratings, with Robert W. Baird setting their target at $113.00 and DZ Bank upgrading to a "buy" with a price target of $85.00.
• Fortinet's stock recently opened at $78.77 and has faced fluctuations, with a yearly high of $114.82 and a low of $70.12, contributing to diverse institutional investor activities regarding the stock.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "underweight" rating reaffirmed by equities researchers at Morgan Stanley in a research report issued on Tuesday, MarketBeat reports. They currently have a $67.00 target price on the software maker's stock, down from their previous target price of $78.00. Morgan Stanley's price objective suggests a potential downside of 12.35% from the stock's current price.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on FTNT. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Fortinet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, August 9th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $85.00 target price (down previously from $125.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $125.00 to $95.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Erste Group Bank lowered Fortinet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, twenty-five have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $97.03.

Fortinet Stock Performance

FTNT traded down $0.14 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $76.44. The company had a trading volume of 6,124,700 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,591,587. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.33. The stock has a market cap of $58.57 billion, a PE ratio of 30.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.12. Fortinet has a 12-month low of $70.12 and a 12-month high of $114.82. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $93.11 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $98.49.

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

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In related 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 owned 9,730,560 shares in the company, valued at approximately $958,265,548.80. This trade represents a 4.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director William H. Neukom bought 335 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $104.22 per share, with a total value of $34,913.70. Following the transaction, the director directly 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 disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 17.20% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in FTNT. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 703.1% in the 1st quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 257 shares of the software maker's stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 225 shares during the last quarter. Saudi Central Bank purchased a new position in Fortinet during the first quarter worth $25,000. LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in Fortinet during the second quarter worth $25,000. Clearstead Trust LLC bought a new position in Fortinet during the first quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd raised its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 284 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by 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.