Scotiabank Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Price

Key Points

• Scotiabank has lowered its target price for Fortinet stock from $115 to $85, while maintaining a "sector outperform" rating, suggesting a potential upside of 13% from its previous close.
• Fortinet's stock has experienced a significant decline, trading down 22.1% to $75.22 with analysts reducing their price targets across various brokerage firms.
• Fortinet reported a quarterly earnings per share of $0.64, exceeding analysts' expectations, with a revenue growth of 13.6% year-over-year, indicating strong operational performance despite stock price fluctuations.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) had its target price lowered by stock analysts at Scotiabank from $115.00 to $85.00 in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a "sector outperform" rating on the software maker's stock. Scotiabank's target price would suggest a potential upside of 13.00% from the company's previous close.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on FTNT. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $95.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Wedbush reduced their price objective on Fortinet from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group reduced their price target on Fortinet from $105.00 to $90.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Fortinet from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price objective on Fortinet from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-four have assigned a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $99.59.

Fortinet Stock Down 22.1%

FTNT traded down $21.36 on Thursday, hitting $75.22. 42,320,603 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,013,424. The company has a current ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. Fortinet has a twelve month low of $67.97 and a twelve month high of $114.82. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $102.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $101.88. The company has a market cap of $57.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 1.07.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.63 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 148.79% and a net margin of 30.60%. The firm's revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.57 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Fortinet will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total value of $46,935,174.08. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 9,730,560 shares of the company's stock, valued at $958,265,548.80. This represents a 4.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total value of $15,607,701.28. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,391,879 shares in the company, valued at $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. Company insiders own 17.20% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Winthrop Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet in the second quarter valued at approximately $63,000. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA increased its stake in Fortinet by 60.8% in the 2nd quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 426 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares in the last quarter. Prescott Group Capital Management L.L.C. lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 92.3% in the 2nd quarter. Prescott Group Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 23,875 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $2,524,000 after purchasing an additional 11,458 shares in the last quarter. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC purchased a new stake in Fortinet during the 2nd quarter worth $968,000. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new position in Fortinet in the second quarter worth about $603,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.

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