Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.05 EPS

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The software maker reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05, Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.34 billion. Fortinet had a negative return on equity of 7,572.46% and a net margin of 21.64%. The business’s revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.29 earnings per share. Fortinet updated its Q2 guidance to $0.39-0.41 EPS and its FY24 guidance to $1.73 to $1.79 EPS.

Fortinet Stock Up 2.6 %

FTNT traded up $1.67 during trading on Thursday, reaching $65.20. 8,264,011 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,760,447. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $67.74 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $61.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.06. Fortinet has a fifty-two week low of $44.12 and a fifty-two week high of $81.24. The stock has a market cap of $49.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 1.08.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total transaction of $1,593,300.80. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,867,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $700,705,320.64. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.40, for a total transaction of $1,691,751.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,625,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,471,825,357. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total value of $1,593,300.80. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,867,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $700,705,320.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 156,849 shares of company stock valued at $10,571,176 in the last three months. Insiders own 17.54% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on FTNT shares. Scotiabank raised their price target on Fortinet from $70.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Citigroup cut Fortinet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $60.00 to $62.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. DZ Bank lowered Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $60.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Fortinet from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, HSBC cut shares of Fortinet from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and set a $57.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have given a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $72.19.

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.