Fortinet (FTNT) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

In the latest trading session, Fortinet (FTNT) closed at $117.31, marking a +0.43% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.61% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 1.51%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 1.87%.

Heading into today, shares of the network security company had lost 11.55% over the past month, lagging the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 4.69% and the S&P 500's loss of 4.08% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from FTNT as it approaches its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect FTNT to post earnings of $0.77 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 14.93%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $638.56 million, up 16.63% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $3.04 per share and revenue of $2.53 billion. These totals would mark changes of +23.08% and +17.48%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for FTNT. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 2.69% higher. FTNT is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, FTNT is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 38.39. This valuation marks a no noticeable deviation compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 38.39.

Investors should also note that FTNT has a PEG ratio of 2.74 right now. 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 2.47 as of yesterday's close.

The Security industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 180, which puts it in the bottom 30% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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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