Barclays Trims Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Target Price to $70.00

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its target price trimmed by Barclays from $75.00 to $70.00 in a research report released on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the software maker’s stock.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on FTNT. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their target price on Fortinet from $65.00 to $55.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 3rd. StockNews.com upgraded Fortinet from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Sunday, June 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Fortinet from $67.00 to $63.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Fortinet from $82.00 to $70.00 and set a market perform rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on Fortinet from $81.00 to $75.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $69.86.

Fortinet Stock Performance

FTNT opened at $59.55 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $45.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.98. Fortinet has a 52-week low of $44.12 and a 52-week high of $81.24. The business’s fifty day moving average is $59.87 and its 200-day moving average is $63.92.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its 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 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 quarterly revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.29 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Fortinet will post 1.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,235 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.53, for a total transaction of $1,442,709.55. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,742,483 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,901,640,012.99. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director William H. Neukom acquired 586 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 6th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $59.55 per share, for a total transaction of $34,896.30. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 295,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,613,579.90. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 24,235 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.53, for a total value of $1,442,709.55. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,742,483 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,901,640,012.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 91,638 shares of company stock valued at $5,705,568 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FTNT. Vima LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Winthrop Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 135.6% during the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 377 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Headinvest LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. 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.