Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Price Target Cut to $105.00 by Analysts at Jefferies Financial Group

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price target cut by equities researchers at Jefferies Financial Group from $115.00 to $105.00 in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “hold” rating on the software maker’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s price target indicates a potential upside of 11.74% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on FTNT. Susquehanna lifted their target price on Fortinet from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $112.00 target price (up previously from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $135.00 price target (up from $120.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on Fortinet from $115.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have issued a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $105.69.

Fortinet Stock Down 2.7 %

Fortinet stock traded down $2.63 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $93.97. The stock had a trading volume of 761,670 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,954,754. The stock has a market capitalization of $72.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $102.97 and its 200-day simple moving average is $93.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.47. Fortinet has a 1-year low of $54.57 and a 1-year high of $114.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a net margin of 29.30% and a return on equity of 256.53%. As a group, analysts expect that Fortinet will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other news, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total value of $2,668,660.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $537,820.16. The trade was a 83.23 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total value of $2,150,466.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 49,039,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,576,384,617.36. The trade was a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 599,988 shares of company stock worth $59,094,530 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. First Hawaiian Bank bought a new stake in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth $670,000. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI boosted its holdings in Fortinet by 10.7% during the 4th quarter. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI now owns 89,827 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $8,487,000 after acquiring an additional 8,707 shares during the last quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 17.8% in the 4th quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. now owns 23,499 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,220,000 after acquiring an additional 3,544 shares in the last quarter. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 129.9% in the fourth quarter. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 299,989 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $28,343,000 after purchasing an additional 169,530 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the third quarter valued at about $10,343,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.