Piper Sandler Lowers Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Price Target to $70.00

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price objective lowered by research analysts at Piper Sandler from $75.00 to $70.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “neutral” rating on the software maker’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price target points to a potential upside of 18.89% from the company’s previous close.

FTNT has been the topic of several other reports. DZ Bank lowered Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $60.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $60.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, Capital One Financial cut Fortinet from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $70.68.

Fortinet Stock Down 9.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ FTNT opened at $58.88 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.48, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.08. Fortinet has a one year low of $44.12 and a one year high of $81.24. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $67.53 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $61.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.06.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. Fortinet had a net margin of 22.23% and a negative return on equity of 5,061.85%. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.29 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Fortinet will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 23,643 shares during the period. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 18.5% in the 1st quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. now owns 5,589 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $382,000 after purchasing an additional 871 shares during the period. Signaturefd LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 42.0% during the first quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 15,084 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,030,000 after purchasing an additional 4,461 shares in the last quarter. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd purchased a new position in Fortinet during the first quarter valued at approximately $14,847,000. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP bought a new position in Fortinet in the first quarter worth approximately $569,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.