Jefferies Financial Group Lowers Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Price Target to $70.00

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) had its price target reduced by investment analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from $75.00 to $70.00 in a research note issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a "hold" rating on the software maker's stock. Jefferies Financial Group's price objective suggests a potential upside of 9.32% from the stock's current price.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on FTNT. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $85.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a "neutral" rating and set a $65.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday. Scotiabank upped their target price on Fortinet from $70.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Fortinet from $77.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. They issued a "market perform" rating and a $65.00 price objective on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $72.19.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT traded down $0.63 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $64.03. 3,086,175 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,924,647. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $68.64 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $61.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38. Fortinet has a 12 month low of $44.12 and a 12 month high of $81.24.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 5th. The software maker reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.08. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 7,572.46% and a net margin of 21.64%. The firm had revenue of $1.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.41 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.38 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Fortinet will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.07, for a total transaction of $3,183,021.88. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 51,813,638 shares in the company, valued at $3,578,767,976.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.07, for a total transaction of $3,183,021.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 51,813,638 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,578,767,976.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 38,369 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.45, for a total value of $2,549,620.05. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 29,887,018 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,985,992,346.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 132,139 shares of company stock worth $8,977,876. 17.54% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vima LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Fortinet by 135.6% in the 1st quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 377 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Headinvest LLC purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Retirement Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

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.