Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Upgraded to “Hold” at HSBC

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) was upgraded by analysts at HSBC from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has a $156.00 price objective on the network technology company’s stock. HSBC’s price objective would indicate a potential downside of 7.33% from the stock’s current price.

PANW has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley set a $230.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Barclays reduced their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $425.00 to $213.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $196.40 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. StockNews.com downgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 24th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.52.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of PANW opened at $168.34 on Thursday. Palo Alto Networks has a 12-month low of $135.18 and a 12-month high of $208.39. The stock has a market cap of $111.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 94.84, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a 50-day moving average of $182.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of $184.79.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The network technology company reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.24 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 21.93% and a net margin of 14.64%. As a group, analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.13, for a total transaction of $18,252,574.62. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 321,774 shares in the company, valued at $48,629,704.62. This represents a 27.29 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.22, for a total transaction of $126,854.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 47,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,694,210.72. This trade represents a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 939,318 shares of company stock worth $165,384,602. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Perkins Coie Trust Co boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 4.2% in the first quarter. Perkins Coie Trust Co now owns 8,503 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,451,000 after purchasing an additional 345 shares during the period. Persium Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 9.8% in the 1st quarter. Persium Advisors LLC now owns 2,993 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $511,000 after buying an additional 268 shares during the last quarter. AAFMAA Wealth Management & Trust LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 15.2% in the 1st quarter. AAFMAA Wealth Management & Trust LLC now owns 8,754 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,494,000 after buying an additional 1,154 shares during the period. Congress Asset Management Co. grew its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 568,046 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $96,931,000 after buying an additional 8,501 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Impact Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 25.4% during the first quarter. Impact Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,441 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $246,000 after acquiring an additional 292 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

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.