Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Receives Buy Rating from Raymond James

Raymond James reiterated their buy rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW – Get Rating) in a report released on Friday morning, TipRanks reports. Raymond James currently has a $610.00 target price on the network technology company’s stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $650.00 to $700.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 12th. Cowen reiterated a buy rating and set a $620.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Friday. JMP Securities assumed coverage on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, February 22nd. They set an outperform rating and a $620.00 price objective for the company. Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $700.00 to $600.00 in a research note on Friday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $685.00 to $615.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and thirty have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of Buy and an average price target of $626.48.

Shares of NASDAQ PANW traded up $42.31 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $478.68. 5,894,876 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,870,264. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $569.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $540.54. Palo Alto Networks has a one year low of $350.96 and a one year high of $640.90. The company has a market cap of $47.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -120.27 and a beta of 1.28.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 19th. The network technology company reported $1.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $1.39 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.36 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a negative net margin of 7.54% and a negative return on equity of 54.57%. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue was up 29.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.62) earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks will post -1.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 4,001 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $559.22, for a total value of $2,237,439.22. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 12,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated 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 valued at $40,587,677 in the last ninety days. 2.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 1,076 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $670,000 after buying an additional 19 shares in the last quarter. FineMark National Bank & Trust boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. FineMark National Bank & Trust now owns 794 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $380,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Latitude Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Latitude Advisors LLC now owns 738 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $411,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Johanson Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Johanson Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 785 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $437,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Veriti Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Veriti Management LLC now owns 722 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $402,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.

Featured Stories