BlackRock Fund Advisors recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Fortinet Inc (NASDAQ:FTNT). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Technology company by 0.65% to 32.5 million shares with purchase of 0.21 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 4.23% valued currently at $1.71 billion. In addition, AllianceBernstein LP raised its holdings by 0.28 million to 29.13 million shares. And Geode Capital Management LLC has lifted its position by 2.55% or 0.35 million shares – to 14.12 million shares.
With over 5.83 million Fortinet Inc (FTNT) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $57.78 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $336.67 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -22.61% and its price on 01/02/24 lost nearly -1.28%. Currently, there are 781.50M common shares owned by the public and among those 634.14M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 40 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for FTNT have a consensus price objective of $56.51. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $69.30 and a low of $49.00. The average price target is -2.25% below its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -17.92% over that period. But an upside of 16.62% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $55.56.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 173 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 114 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 1,196,990 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 59 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 1,319,862 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Fortinet Inc are Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, Vanguard 500 Index Fund, and Invesco QQQ Trust. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF owns 20.92 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $1.1 billion. The company bought an additional 25143.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 2.72% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 78027.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 15.74 million shares valued at over $827.48 million and representing 2.05% of the shares outstanding. Invesco QQQ Trust sold 46322.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 13.66 million shares at a value of $718.07 million. Invesco QQQ Trust now owns shares totaling to 1.78% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Fortinet Inc (NASDAQ: FTNT) opened at $58.10, down -$0.43 from a prior closing price of $58.53. However, the script later moved the day high at 58.77, down -1.28%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -2.51% and -1.45% over the past three months. FTNT shares are trading -1.28% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 17.42% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $44.12 and touched a high of $81.24 over the same period. FTNT has an average intraday trading volume of 7.21 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 3.40%, 6.19%, and -8.49% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Fortinet Inc (NASDAQ: FTNT) shares accounts for 67.59% of the company’s 781.50M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 27.79%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 41.83% and 17.85% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $44.37B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.09. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 39.82, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $1.45. The company has a PEG of 2.48 and a Quick Ratio of 1.17 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 13.38. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 1.58% over the week and 2.34% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Fortinet Inc (FTNT) will achieve an EPS of $0.43 for the current quarter, $0.37 for the next quarter and $1.68 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.42 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.44. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.44 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 30.91%, and 7.51% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 16.06% over the next five years, compared to 97.64% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 40 brokerage firm advisors rate Fortinet Inc (FTNT) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.17. Specifically, 14 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 21 of the 40 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the FTNT, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Susquehanna stated their Neutral rating for the stock in a research note on December 15, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $55.
