Robert W. Baird Cuts Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Price Target to $75.00

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its price objective lowered by equities researchers at Robert W. Baird from $81.00 to $75.00 in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the software maker’s stock. Robert W. Baird’s price target points to a potential upside of 24.79% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on FTNT. HSBC lowered Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and set a $57.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. StockNews.com cut Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Fortinet from $60.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $86.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a report on Wednesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have issued a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $71.77.

Fortinet Stock Down 7.8 %

FTNT stock opened at $60.10 on Friday. Fortinet has a twelve month low of $44.12 and a twelve month high of $81.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38. The business has a 50 day moving average of $67.71 and a 200 day moving average of $61.90. The firm has a market cap of $45.88 billion, a PE ratio of 44.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 1.08.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued 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. Fortinet had a net margin of 21.64% and a negative return on equity of 7,572.46%. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.34 billion. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.29 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,625,005 shares in the company, valued at $3,471,825,357. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of Fortinet 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 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total transaction of $1,593,300.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 10,867,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $700,705,320.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 118,480 shares of company stock valued at $8,021,556 in the last quarter. 17.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTNT. Vima LLC purchased a new stake in Fortinet in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC grew its position in 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 period. Headinvest LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet in the third quarter valued at $29,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.