Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Releases Q2 2024 Earnings Guidance

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) updated its second quarter 2024 earnings guidance on Friday. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of 0.390-0.410 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of 0.390. The company issued revenue guidance of $1.4 billion-$1.4 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $1.4 billion. Fortinet also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 1.730-1.790 EPS.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Shares of FTNT traded down $0.07 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $58.81. The stock had a trading volume of 14,471,403 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,978,481. The firm has a market cap of $44.89 billion, a PE ratio of 38.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.08. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $67.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $61.95. Fortinet has a one year low of $44.12 and a one year high of $81.24. The company has a current ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 negative return on equity of 2,235.48% and a net margin of 22.23%. Fortinet’s quarterly revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.29 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 1.4 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on FTNT. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of Fortinet from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and set a $75.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $62.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Cantor Fitzgerald cut their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $65.00 to $55.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Capital One Financial downgraded Fortinet from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a hold rating on shares of Fortinet in a report on Friday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have given a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $70.37.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,625,005 shares in the company, valued at $3,471,825,357. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.40, for a total value of $1,691,751.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,625,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,471,825,357. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the vice president now directly owns 10,867,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $700,705,320.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 118,480 shares of company stock valued at $8,021,556 over the last 90 days. 17.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.