Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Trading Down 4.6% – What’s Next?

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)’s share price was down 4.6% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as low as $96.50 and last traded at $96.60. Approximately 1,203,574 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 75% from the average daily volume of 4,797,259 shares. The stock had previously closed at $101.28.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Fortinet from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Wedbush boosted their price objective on Fortinet from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. KeyCorp raised Fortinet from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $115.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $87.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Fortinet from $85.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortinet has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $103.72.

Fortinet Price Performance

The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $102.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $91.36. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $75.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.49, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.97.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last issued 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 return on equity of 256.53% and a net margin of 29.30%. Equities research analysts forecast that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Fortinet

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 206,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.93, for a total transaction of $19,967,580.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 51,391,879 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,981,414,831.47. The trade was a 0.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 326,784 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.17, for a total transaction of $32,080,385.28. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 11,000,068 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,079,876,675.56. This trade represents a 2.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 620,904 shares of company stock worth $61,138,694. Company insiders own 18.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in Fortinet during the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Oarsman Capital Inc. raised its stake in shares of Fortinet by 188.9% in the fourth quarter. Oarsman Capital Inc. now owns 416 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 272 shares in the last quarter. Graney & King LLC bought a new position in Fortinet in the fourth quarter worth $43,000. Finally, Banque Transatlantique SA bought a new stake in Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

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.