What happened
These days, with cybersecurity being top of mind for many organizations and governments, stocks in that tech niche have done relatively well. One that had a good Thursday on the market was Fortinet (FTNT -2.59%), which eked out a win over the S&P 500 index thanks to a rather bullish note from an analyst tracking the shares. The stock bumped up by 1.8% on the day, eclipsing the index's 1.3% gain.
So what
The analyst in question was TD Cowen's Shaul Eyal, who reiterated his outperform (read: buy) recommendation on Fortinet stock at a price target of $85 per share.
Eyal published a fresh note on the stock in advance of its upcoming first-quarter earnings release. He feels that the cybersecurity company will top consensus analyst estimates for both revenue and profitability. This take is based on checks with 15 resellers and other discussions with those familiar with Fortinet's solutions, plus what he termed "overall hybrid IT security positive momentum," among other factors.
In fact, according to Eyal, his company has the highest estimate for Fortinet sales for the quarter, at nearly $1.22 billion.
Now what
As a group, analysts are generally quite bullish about Fortinet's growth prospects.
For the aforementioned quarter, the results of which are slated to be published and disseminated on May 4, those prognosticators are anticipating that the top line will rise by 26% year over year to $1.20 billion. Net income, meanwhile, should improve more dramatically; the consensus is for a more than 50% improvement to $0.29 per share.
