Stifel Nicolaus Has Lowered Expectations for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Price

Key Points

• Stifel Nicolaus has lowered its price target for Fortinet from $95.00 to $85.00, maintaining a "hold" rating, which suggests a potential upside of 17.46% from the stock's previous close.
• Shares of Fortinet experienced a significant drop, trading down 25.1% to $72.36, with a trading volume vastly exceeding its average.
• Fortinet reported earnings of $0.64 per share for the last quarter, exceeding estimates and showing a 13.6% increase in revenue year-over-year.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) had its price target reduced by investment analysts at Stifel Nicolaus from $95.00 to $85.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a "hold" rating on the software maker's stock. Stifel Nicolaus' target price suggests a potential upside of 17.46% from the company's previous close.

FTNT has been the subject of several other reports. UBS Group reduced their target price on Fortinet from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. KeyCorp cut Fortinet from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Wall Street Zen upgraded Fortinet from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, July 12th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Fortinet in a research note on Monday, May 12th. They set a "peer perform" rating on the stock. Finally, Roth Capital set a $103.00 price objective on Fortinet and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-four have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $101.14.

Fortinet Trading Down 25.1%

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT traded down $24.22 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $72.36. The stock had a trading volume of 32,937,006 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,955,694. The company has a market capitalization of $55.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.78, a PEG ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 1.07. Fortinet has a 1-year low of $67.97 and a 1-year high of $114.82. 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 fifty day moving average price of $102.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $101.88.

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

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.48, for a total transaction of $15,607,701.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,391,879 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,061,072,243.92. This trade represents a 0.31% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director William H. Neukom purchased 335 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 6th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $104.22 per share, with a total value of $34,913.70. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 301,471 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,419,307.62. This represents a 0.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 17.20% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. raised its stake 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 valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. Saudi Central Bank bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Clearstead Trust LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 2,184.6% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Finally, ORG Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 47.5% in the 1st quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 348 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.

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