Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Releases Q4 2022 Earnings Guidance

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW – Get Rating) issued an update on its fourth quarter 2022 earnings guidance on Thursday morning. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $2.26-$2.29 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.22. The company issued revenue guidance of $1.53 billion-$1.55 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $1.53 billion.Palo Alto Networks also updated its FY 2022 guidance to $7.43-$7.46 EPS.

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock traded down $2.23 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $436.37. 3,909,669 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,736,715. The company has a market cap of $42.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -102.80 and a beta of 1.28. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $572.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $541.25. Palo Alto Networks has a fifty-two week low of $337.13 and a fifty-two week high of $640.90.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 22nd. The network technology company reported ($0.64) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.42) by ($0.22). The firm had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.28 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a negative return on equity of 42.84% and a negative net margin of 9.50%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 29.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.42) EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks will post -1.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PANW has been the subject of several research reports. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $625.00 to $645.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 23rd. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $625.00 to $600.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Guggenheim restated a buy rating and issued a $625.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, February 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $650.00 to $700.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 12th. Finally, BTIG Research raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $610.00 to $720.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday, April 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twenty-nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks has a consensus rating of Buy and a consensus target price of $629.03.

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 25,250 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $552.67, for a total value of $13,954,917.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 12,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $616.26, for a total transaction of $7,395,120.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 71,032 shares of company stock worth $40,587,677 over the last quarter. 2.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Worth Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the first quarter valued at $26,000. Covestor Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 61.8% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 55 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. High Net Worth Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the first quarter valued at $71,000. Centaurus Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the first quarter valued at $103,000. Finally, Parkside Financial Bank & Trust increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 50.0% in the first quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 171 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $106,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.33% of the company’s stock.

About Palo Alto Networks (Get Rating)

Palo Alto Networks, Inc provides cybersecurity solutions worldwide. The company offers firewall appliances and software; Panorama, a security management solution for the control of firewall appliances and software deployed on an end-customer's network and instances in public or private cloud environments, as a virtual or a physical appliance; and virtual system upgrades, which are available as extensions to the virtual system capacity that ships with physical appliances.

See Also