Fortinet (FTNT) shares are getting some attention today after Rosenblatt Securities lowered its price target for the cybersecurity company ahead of its Q2 earnings on August 6. The stock fell as much as 6% in premarket trading but has mostly recovered and is down around 1.4% at the time of writing. Analyst Catharine Trebnick kept her Buy rating but cut the price target from $85 to $68.
She mentioned that recent conversations with Fortinet’s sales partners raised some concerns. Out of four partners she spoke to, two expected to miss their sales targets. The issues seem to be mainly in the value-added resellers market.
Trebnick also highlighted that Fortinet has seen some turnover with its channel managers, which could affect how they build their sales pipeline and close deals in the next quarter. Due to these factors, she reduced her forecasts for the firm’s revenue and billings for 2024 and 2025.
Analysts, on average, are expecting Fortinet to report earnings of $0.41 per share on $1.4 billion in revenue for the upcoming quarter. Interestingly, the company has beaten earnings estimates in every quarter since its 2020 Q3.
Is FTNT a Good Stock to Buy?
Overall, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on FTNT stock based on five Buys, 12 Holds, and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 3% decline in its share price over the past year, the average FTNT price target of $68.14 per share implies almost 22% upside potential.
