Fortinet (FTNT) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know
In the latest trading session, Fortinet (FTNT) closed at $72.75, marking a -0.8% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.06%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.83%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.72%.
Coming into today, shares of the network security company had lost 10.19% in the past month. In that same time, the Computer and Technology sector lost 5.24%, while the S&P 500 lost 2.09%.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from FTNT as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be February 4, 2019. On that day, FTNT is projected to report earnings of $0.51 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 59.38%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $495.54 million, up 18.93% from the year-ago period.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $1.75 per share and revenue of $1.79 billion, which would represent changes of +68.27% and +19.74%, respectively, from the prior year.
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for FTNT. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature 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 shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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 ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 6.04% higher within the past month. FTNT currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that FTNT has a Forward P/E ratio of 41.98 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 46.81, which means FTNT is trading at a discount to the group.
Also, we should mention that FTNT has a PEG ratio of 2.51. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Security industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.57 as of yesterday's close.
The Security industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 22, putting it in the top 9% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks 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 follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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