Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Shares Up 1.5% Following Analyst Upgrade

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) shares rose 1.5% during mid-day trading on Wednesday after Scotiabank raised their price target on the stock from $200.00 to $225.00. Scotiabank currently has a sector outperform rating on the stock. Palo Alto Networks traded as high as $187.02 and last traded at $186.29. Approximately 1,547,199 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 75% from the average daily volume of 6,089,137 shares. The stock had previously closed at $183.51.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on PANW. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Loop Capital reduced their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $180.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $425.00 to $213.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price 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. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.85.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 336,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $193.70, for a total value of $65,081,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 3,643,516 shares in the company, valued at $705,730,831.62. The trade was a 8.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 176,242 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.04, for a total transaction of $31,730,609.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,086,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $195,596,176.16. This represents a 13.96 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 867,734 shares of company stock worth $161,546,523 over the last 90 days. 2.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 34,318.2% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,259,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,113,948,000 after purchasing an additional 3,249,594 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 199.1% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,822,336 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $333,925,000 after purchasing an additional 1,213,073 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 50.1% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,147,215 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,075,718,000 after acquiring an additional 1,050,173 shares during the period. Swedbank AB increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 107.8% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,634,701 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $297,450,000 after acquiring an additional 848,127 shares during the period. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 100.6% in the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,374,653 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $250,132,000 after acquiring an additional 689,458 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 0.2 %

The business’s fifty day moving average price is $188.60 and its 200 day moving average price is $178.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $122.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.78, a PEG ratio of 5.25 and a beta of 1.14.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.78 EPS 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.32 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 1.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

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.