Morgan Stanley Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its target price lifted by equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $223.00 to $230.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “overweight” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price suggests a potential upside of 22.54% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $190.00 target price (down previously from $207.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $208.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, HSBC lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $152.00 to $145.50 in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.85.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

NASDAQ PANW opened at $187.70 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $188.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $178.81. Palo Alto Networks has a fifty-two week low of $130.04 and a fifty-two week high of $207.24. The company has a market cap of $123.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.88, a P/E/G ratio of 5.07 and a beta of 1.14.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.12 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.99% and a return on equity of 23.36%. The business’s revenue was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.32 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.74 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $179.70, for a total value of $21,564,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 365,856 shares in the company, valued at approximately $65,744,323.20. This represents a 24.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 235,492 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.32, for a total transaction of $43,170,393.44. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,086,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $199,159,581.28. This trade represents a 17.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 867,734 shares of company stock valued at $161,546,523. Company insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Tradewinds LLC. grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 1.2% in the third quarter. Tradewinds LLC. now owns 2,315 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $791,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Kathmere Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 920 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $312,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. FLC Capital Advisors grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. FLC Capital Advisors now owns 4,035 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,379,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Cromwell Holdings LLC increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,044 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $357,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 9.4% during the third quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 348 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $119,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc provides cybersecurity solutions worldwide. The company offers firewall appliances and software; and Panorama, a security management solution for the global control of network security platform as a virtual or a physical appliance. It also provides subscription services covering the areas of threat prevention, malware and persistent threat, URL filtering, laptop and mobile device protection, DNS security, Internet of Things security, SaaS security API, and SaaS security inline, as well as threat intelligence, and data loss prevention.