Truist Financial Has Lowered Expectations for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Price

Key Points

• Truist Financial has reduced its price target for Fortinet's stock from $125.00 to $95.00, while still maintaining a "buy" rating, indicating a potential upside of 34% from current levels.
• Fortinet's stock experienced a significant decline, trading down $25.69 to reach $70.90 during recent trading hours, amidst broader market fluctuations.
• As of now, analysts have mixed ratings on Fortinet, with 24 hold ratings, 8 buy ratings, and 2 sell ratings across various equity research firms.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) had its price objective decreased by investment analysts at Truist Financial from $125.00 to $95.00 in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a "buy" rating on the software maker's stock. Truist Financial's price objective suggests a potential upside of 34.00% from the company's current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on FTNT. Wall Street Zen upgraded Fortinet from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, July 12th. TD Cowen reiterated a "hold" rating and set a $105.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Thursday. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on Fortinet from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Fortinet from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-four have assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $102.69.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of Fortinet stock traded down $25.69 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $70.90. The company had a trading volume of 19,821,974 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,845,053. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $102.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $101.88. The firm has a market cap of $54.26 billion, a PE ratio of 29.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 1.29. Fortinet has a one year low of $67.97 and a one year high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last released 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. The business had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.63 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 30.60% and a return on equity of 148.79%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.57 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director William H. Neukom purchased 335 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, June 6th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $104.22 per share, with a total value of $34,913.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 301,471 shares in the company, valued at $31,419,307.62. This represents a 0.11% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 476,596 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the vice president directly owned 9,730,560 shares in the company, valued at $958,265,548.80. This represents a 4.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 17.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 3,546,934 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 11,349.3% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,927,607 shares of the software maker's stock worth $185,551,000 after purchasing an additional 1,910,771 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Fortinet by 40.9% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,971,648 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $561,156,000 after purchasing an additional 1,733,670 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet in the 1st quarter valued at $153,576,000. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 17.1% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 7,016,467 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $675,405,000 after buying an additional 1,026,277 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company's stock.

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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