Cantor Fitzgerald Predicts Weaker Earnings for Fortinet

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) – Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their FY2025 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for Fortinet in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, February 4th. Cantor Fitzgerald analyst J. Ruykhaver now expects that the software maker will earn $2.17 per share for the year, down from their previous estimate of $2.20. Cantor Fitzgerald currently has a “Neutral” rating and a $110.00 target price on the stock. The consensus estimate for Fortinet’s current full-year earnings is $1.95 per share.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The software maker reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.13. Fortinet had a net margin of 26.79% and a return on equity of 973.30%. The firm had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.48 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.35 EPS.

FTNT has been the topic of several other reports. Baird R W lowered Fortinet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Fortinet from $70.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Bank of America raised their target price on Fortinet from $87.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $99.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Fortinet has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.73.

Fortinet Stock Up 2.2 %

Shares of FTNT opened at $105.07 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.34. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $96.92 and a 200-day simple moving average of $84.07. Fortinet has a 52 week low of $54.57 and a 52 week high of $105.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $80.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.07, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.01.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 22,916 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.93, for a total transaction of $2,244,163.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,983,683 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,796,972,076.19. The trade was a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director William H. Neukom purchased 355 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $98.50 per share, with a total value of $34,967.50. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 150,245 shares in the company, valued at $14,799,132.50. The trade was a 0.24 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold 67,860 shares of company stock worth $6,469,056 in the last quarter. Insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortinet

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Eastern Bank bought a new position in Fortinet during the third quarter worth about $25,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortinet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC grew its position in shares of Fortinet by 73.3% in the 3rd quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 409 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the period. City State Bank increased its stake in Fortinet by 900.0% during the 3rd quarter. City State Bank now owns 500 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Paladin Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $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.