Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Given New $100.00 Price Target at Wedbush

Key Points

• Wedbush has reduced Fortinet's stock price target from $120.00 to $100.00, maintaining an "outperform" rating, suggesting a potential upside of approximately 39.27%.
• Other brokerages are also adjusting their ratings, with Stifel Nicolaus lowering its target to $95.00 and Cowen downgrading from "buy" to "hold".
• In recent trading, Fortinet stock fell to $71.80, with significant share volume of over 11.5 million compared to its average of 4.78 million.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) had its price objective decreased by Wedbush from $120.00 to $100.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an "outperform" rating on the software maker's stock. Wedbush's price objective would indicate a potential upside of 34.43% from the stock's previous close.

Several other research firms have also commented on FTNT. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price target on Fortinet from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Fortinet from an "overweight" rating to a "reduce" rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $110.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Thursday. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Fortinet from $110.00 to $113.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their price objective on Fortinet from $135.00 to $115.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-five have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortinet currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $97.93.

Fortinet Stock Down 1.2%

Shares of FTNT stock traded down $0.91 during trading on Thursday, reaching $74.39. The company's stock had a trading volume of 17,001,530 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,194,551. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The company has a market capitalization of $56.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.07. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $101.76 and its 200 day moving average price is $101.62. Fortinet has a 1-year low of $67.97 and a 1-year high of $114.82.

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 analysts' consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.63 billion. Fortinet had a return on equity of 111.46% and a net margin of 30.60%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.57 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director William H. Neukom purchased 335 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, June 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $104.22 per share, for a total transaction of $34,913.70. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 301,471 shares in the company, valued at $31,419,307.62. This trade represents a 0.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 158,486 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 $15,607,701.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,391,879 shares of the company's stock, 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. 17.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 4.1% in the second quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 505,863 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $53,480,000 after acquiring an additional 19,920 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 13.7% during the second quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 14,024 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $1,483,000 after purchasing an additional 1,690 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 45.5% during the second quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 27,075 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $2,862,000 after purchasing an additional 8,465 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 34.6% during the second quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 763,345 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $80,701,000 after purchasing an additional 196,325 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 7.1% during the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 164,728 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $17,415,000 after purchasing an additional 10,934 shares during the period. 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.