Citigroup Lowers Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Price Target to $65.00

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price objective cut by Citigroup from $68.00 to $65.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “neutral” rating on the software maker’s stock. Citigroup’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 12.40% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on FTNT. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Fortinet from $81.00 to $75.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Fortinet from $73.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on Fortinet from $70.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $78.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Wednesday, May 22nd. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $75.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $70.00.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT traded up $0.44 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $57.83. 586,167 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,720,226. Fortinet has a 12-month low of $44.12 and a 12-month high of $78.58. The firm has a market cap of $44.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.98. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $59.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $63.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 2,235.48% and a net margin of 22.23%. Fortinet’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.29 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 1.47 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,267 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.01, for a total value of $1,456,262.67. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,777,294 shares in the company, valued at $2,927,125,412.94. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,267 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.01, for a total transaction of $1,456,262.67. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,777,294 shares in the company, valued at $2,927,125,412.94. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total value of $1,593,300.80. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 10,867,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $700,705,320.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 91,913 shares of company stock worth $5,608,349 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Global Financial Private Client LLC raised its position in Fortinet by 4.5% in the 2nd quarter. Global Financial Private Client LLC now owns 14,273 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $860,000 after buying an additional 619 shares during the last quarter. KCM Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Fortinet by 6.5% in the 2nd quarter. KCM Investment Advisors LLC now owns 43,070 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,596,000 after buying an additional 2,630 shares during the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. raised its position in Fortinet by 68.4% in the 2nd quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 1,460,729 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $88,038,000 after buying an additional 593,370 shares during the last quarter. Modera Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Fortinet by 9.8% in the 2nd quarter. Modera Wealth Management LLC now owns 94,675 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $5,706,000 after buying an additional 8,485 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. raised its position in Fortinet by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 36,589 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,205,000 after buying an additional 373 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.