Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Lowered to “Underperform” at Mizuho

Mizuho cut shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) from a neutral rating to an underperform rating in a report issued on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. The firm currently has $68.00 price objective on the software maker’s stock.

FTNT has been the subject of a number of other reports. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Fortinet from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $71.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com raised shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $78.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $73.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-three have given a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Fortinet presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $72.71.

Fortinet Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FTNT opened at $81.07 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.32. The company has a market cap of $61.93 billion, a PE ratio of 52.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 1.00. Fortinet has a 52 week low of $44.12 and a 52 week high of $83.77. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $76.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $66.65.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.40 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 23.71% and a negative return on equity of 2,160.10%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.31 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Fortinet will post 1.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,307 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.89, for a total value of $1,908,610.23. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,915,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,005,692,751.70. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,712 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total transaction of $1,386,590.32. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 10,847,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $608,626,179.98. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,307 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.89, for a total transaction of $1,908,610.23. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,915,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,005,692,751.70. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 95,250 shares of company stock valued at $6,790,149 over the last 90 days. 18.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortinet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Winthrop Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 135.6% in the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 377 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 217 shares during the period. City State Bank boosted its position in shares of Fortinet by 900.0% in the third quarter. City State Bank now owns 500 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 450 shares during the period. Oakworth Capital Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the second quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Paladin Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Fortinet during the third quarter worth about $46,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.