Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) PT Lowered to $73.00 at Morgan Stanley

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its target price cut by Morgan Stanley from $81.00 to $73.00 in a research report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the software maker’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on FTNT. DZ Bank downgraded Fortinet from a hold rating to a sell rating and set a $60.00 target price for the company. in a report on Thursday, February 8th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Fortinet from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Fortinet from $81.00 to $75.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Mizuho dropped their price target on Fortinet from $70.00 to $66.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald dropped their target price on Fortinet from $65.00 to $55.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $70.37.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT traded down $0.07 during trading on Friday, reaching $58.81. The stock had a trading volume of 14,471,111 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,978,480. Fortinet has a one year low of $44.12 and a one year high of $81.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.20. The stock has a market cap of $44.89 billion, a PE ratio of 38.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.08. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $67.53 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $61.95.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.34 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 2,235.48% and a net margin of 22.23%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.29 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 1.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.07, for a total transaction of $3,183,021.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 51,813,638 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,578,767,976.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total transaction of $1,593,300.80. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 10,867,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $700,705,320.64. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 46,084 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.07, for a total value of $3,183,021.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 51,813,638 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,578,767,976.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 118,480 shares of company stock worth $8,021,556 in the last 90 days. 17.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of FTNT. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 156.8% in the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 9,441,059 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $554,945,000 after acquiring an additional 5,765,174 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $203,501,000. Sarasin & Partners LLP bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter worth approximately $120,746,000. DSM Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $75,698,000. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 358.1% during the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 1,644,139 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $96,478,000 after buying an additional 1,285,197 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.