Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) Updates Q2 Earnings Guidance

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) updated its second quarter earnings guidance on Thursday. The company provided EPS guidance of $0.39-0.41 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $0.39. The company issued revenue guidance of $1.375-1.435 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $1.39 billion. Fortinet also updated its FY24 guidance to $1.73 to $1.79 EPS.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Fortinet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Friday. StockNews.com upgraded Fortinet from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Friday. Truist Financial reduced their price target on shares of Fortinet from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Fortinet from $82.00 to $70.00 and set a market perform rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets raised Fortinet from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and set a $75.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have issued a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $70.68.

Fortinet Price Performance

NASDAQ:FTNT traded down $6.32 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $58.88. 15,896,615 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,338,557. Fortinet has a 12-month low of $44.12 and a 12-month high of $81.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38. The company has a market cap of $44.94 billion, a PE ratio of 38.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.08. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $67.53 and its 200 day moving average price is $61.92.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. Fortinet had a net margin of 22.23% and a negative return on equity of 5,061.85%. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.34 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.29 earnings per share. Fortinet’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Fortinet will post 1.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Fortinet

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at $3,471,825,357. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,694 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.40, for a total value of $1,691,751.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 48,625,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,471,825,357. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the vice president now directly owns 10,867,018 shares in the company, valued at $700,705,320.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 118,480 shares of company stock valued at $8,021,556. Corporate insiders own 17.54% of the company’s stock.

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.