Jefferies Financial Group Cuts Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Price Target to $105.00

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) had its target price cut by equities research analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from $115.00 to $105.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “hold” rating on the software maker’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s price target points to a potential upside of 11.74% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. KeyCorp raised Fortinet from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $115.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Fortinet from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $112.00 price target (up previously from $105.00) on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Fortinet has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $105.69.

Fortinet Stock Down 2.7 %

NASDAQ:FTNT traded down $2.63 on Monday, hitting $93.97. 761,670 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,954,754. The company has a market cap of $72.26 billion, a PE ratio of 41.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97. Fortinet has a 1 year low of $54.57 and a 1 year high of $114.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $102.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $93.38.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a net margin of 29.30% and a return on equity of 256.53%. Equities analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortinet

In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,044 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.32, for a total transaction of $2,150,466.08. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 49,039,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,576,384,617.36. This trade represents a 0.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Keith Jensen sold 23,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.56, for a total transaction of $2,668,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $537,820.16. This trade represents a 83.23 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 599,988 shares of company stock valued at $59,094,530. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth about $724,048,000. Schroder Investment Management Group bought a new stake in Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $389,867,000. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Fortinet by 77.2% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,531,705 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $617,115,000 after buying an additional 2,846,475 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in Fortinet by 39.3% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $720,150,000 after buying an additional 2,151,811 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Fortinet by 72.6% in the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 4,906,439 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $463,561,000 after buying an additional 2,064,016 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.