Fortinet (FTNT) Beats Stock Market Upswing: What Investors Need to Know
Fortinet (FTNT) closed at $61.41 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.3% move from the prior day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.88%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.54%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.35%.
The network security company's shares have seen an increase of 5.52% over the last month, surpassing the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 0.72% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.64%.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Fortinet in its upcoming release. The company is slated to reveal its earnings on February 6, 2024. The company's earnings per share (EPS) are projected to be $0.43, reflecting a 2.27% decrease from the same quarter last year. At the same time, our most recent consensus estimate is projecting a revenue of $1.41 billion, reflecting a 9.77% rise from the equivalent quarter last year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Fortinet. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Our research reveals that these estimate alterations are directly linked with the stock price performance in the near future. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, running from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), holds an admirable track record of superior performance, independently audited, with #1 stocks contributing an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed a 1.02% decrease. Fortinet currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Investors should also note Fortinet's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 36.85. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 33.59.
Investors should also note that FTNT has a PEG ratio of 2.05 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The average PEG ratio for the Internet - Software industry stood at 1.72 at the close of the market yesterday.
The Internet - Software industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 54, which puts it in the top 22% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming trading sessions.
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Fortinet, Inc. (FTNT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
