Jefferies Financial Group Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Stock Price

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price objective decreased by equities researchers at Jefferies Financial Group from $115.00 to $105.00 in a note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “hold” rating on the software maker’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s target price points to a potential upside of 8.62% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Guggenheim reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $99.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $115.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price objective on Fortinet from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have given a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Fortinet has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $105.77.

Fortinet Stock Performance

FTNT stock opened at $96.67 on Monday. Fortinet has a 1 year low of $54.57 and a 1 year high of $114.82. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $103.00 and its 200-day moving average price is $93.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The company has a market cap of $74.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a net margin of 29.30% and a return on equity of 256.53%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 49,039,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,576,384,617.36. The trade was a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 326,784 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.17, for a total value of $32,080,385.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 11,000,068 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,079,876,675.56. The trade was a 2.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 599,988 shares of company stock valued at $59,094,530. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. purchased a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Oarsman Capital Inc. raised its position in shares of Fortinet by 188.9% in the fourth quarter. Oarsman Capital Inc. now owns 416 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 272 shares during the last quarter. Graney & King LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth about $43,000. Banque Transatlantique SA acquired a new stake in Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $46,000. 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.