Evercore ISI set a $38.00 target price on Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) in a research report sent to investors on Thursday, July 27th. The firm currently has a hold rating on the software maker’s stock.
“We believe most segments performed well with the exception of service providers. The company maintained its long-term margin targets (25% by 2022) which remain unaccompanied by growth metrics. FTNT’s board doubled the share repurchase authorization through Jan. 2019, which we view as a positive. We believe the company continues to execute on its push to shift its business towards ratable revenue which should make the topline more predictable and serve as a tailwind to margin expansion. The lack of clarity around the long-term business model remains an overhang that in combination with potentially tough guidance for the remainder of the year should keep the stock range bound in the near-term.”,” Evercore ISI’s analyst wrote.
FTNT has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Zacks Investment Research upgraded Fortinet from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $44.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price target on Fortinet from $35.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, April 28th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a buy rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, April 28th. Oppenheimer Holdings, Inc. reiterated an outperform rating and set a $45.00 price target on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Monday, April 17th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Fortinet from $36.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research report on Monday, April 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. The company has a consensus rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $41.56.
Shares of Fortinet (NASDAQ FTNT) opened at 36.52 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $38.52 and its 200-day moving average is $37.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 100.05 and a beta of 1.02. Fortinet has a 1-year low of $28.51 and a 1-year high of $41.56.
Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 26th. The software maker reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.07. Fortinet had a return on equity of 9.36% and a net margin of 4.71%. The business had revenue of $363.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $361.05 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.14 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Fortinet will post $0.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
COPYRIGHT VIOLATION NOTICE: This report was originally published by StockNewsTimes and is the sole property of of StockNewsTimes. If you are reading this report on another website, it was illegally stolen and reposted in violation of U.S. & international trademark and copyright legislation. The legal version of this report can be read at https://stocknewstimes.com/2017/08/09/fortinet-inc-ftnt-given-a-38-00-price-target-by-evercore-isi-analysts-updated.html.
Fortinet declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, July 26th that permits the company to repurchase $300.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the software maker to reacquire up to 4.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.
In other Fortinet news, VP John Whittle sold 2,091 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.27, for a total value of $75,840.57. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 7,181 shares in the company, valued at $260,454.87. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Keith Jensen sold 624 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.73, for a total value of $25,415.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 978 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,833.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 11,458 shares of company stock worth $433,169 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 17.00% of the company’s stock.
A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FTNT. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Fortinet by 23.7% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 255,393 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $7,693,000 after buying an additional 48,851 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Fortinet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $31,053,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new stake in Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at about $2,725,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. bought a new stake in Fortinet during the fourth quarter valued at about $121,000. Finally, Perigon Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Fortinet by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 41,968 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,523,000 after buying an additional 325 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.98% of the company’s stock.
Fortinet Company Profile
Fortinet, Inc is a network security company. The Company provides cyber security solutions to a range of enterprises, service providers and government organizations across the world. Its network security solution consists of FortiGate physical, virtual machine and cloud platforms, which provide integrated security and networking functions to protect data, applications and users from network-and content-level security threats.
Receive News & Ratings for Fortinet Inc. Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Fortinet Inc. and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.
