Cantor Fitzgerald Trims Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Target Price to $55.00

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its target price cut by Cantor Fitzgerald from $65.00 to $55.00 in a research note published on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the software maker’s stock. Cantor Fitzgerald also issued estimates for Fortinet’s FY2024 earnings at $1.46 EPS.

FTNT has been the subject of several other reports. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a sector outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Citigroup cut shares of Fortinet from a buy rating to a neutral rating and increased their target price for the stock from $60.00 to $62.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of Fortinet in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. They issued a market perform rating and a $65.00 price objective for the company. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Fortinet from $81.00 to $75.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $52.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $70.37.

Fortinet Price Performance

Shares of FTNT stock traded down $0.07 during trading on Friday, hitting $58.81. The company had a trading volume of 14,428,140 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,977,987. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $67.53 and its 200 day moving average price is $61.95. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $44.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.08.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.34 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 22.23% and a negative return on equity of 2,235.48%. Fortinet’s revenue 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. Equities analysts expect that Fortinet will post 1.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.40, for a total transaction of $1,691,751.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,625,005 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,471,825,357. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Fortinet news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total value of $1,593,300.80. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 10,867,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $700,705,320.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.40, for a total transaction of $1,691,751.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,625,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,471,825,357. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 118,480 shares of company stock valued at $8,021,556 over the last ninety days. 17.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in Fortinet by 220.2% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 34,378 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,348,000 after buying an additional 23,643 shares during the last quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. lifted its holdings in Fortinet by 18.5% during the first quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. now owns 5,589 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $382,000 after purchasing an additional 871 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC increased its stake in shares of Fortinet by 42.0% in the first quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 15,084 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,030,000 after purchasing an additional 4,461 shares in the last quarter. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $14,847,000. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP bought a new position in Fortinet in the 1st quarter worth approximately $569,000. Hedge funds and other 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.