Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock Price Up 1.6% on Analyst Upgrade

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) shares rose 1.6% during trading on Thursday after Oppenheimer raised their price target on the stock from $305.00 to $330.00. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Palo Alto Networks traded as high as $283.15 and last traded at $281.85. Approximately 837,148 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 85% from the average daily volume of 5,554,390 shares. The stock had previously closed at $277.33.

PANW has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $345.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Northland Securities cut Palo Alto Networks from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $275.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Palo Alto Networks to $420.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $380.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $400.00 to $345.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $314.82.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.13, for a total transaction of $523,002.71. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 25,812 shares in the company, valued at $7,230,715.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.13, for a total value of $523,002.71. Following the transaction, the president now owns 25,812 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,230,715.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 45,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.03, for a total value of $15,436,350.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 198,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $67,955,958.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 167,917 shares of company stock valued at $49,395,553. 3.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. RB Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 19.9% during the first quarter. RB Capital Management LLC now owns 602 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $375,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Morgens Waterfall Vintiadis & Co. Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter worth approximately $6,910,000. United Bank lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 11.7% during the 1st quarter. United Bank now owns 2,822 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,757,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares during the period. Yousif Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 13.6% in the 1st quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 1,547 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $963,000 after buying an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prudential PLC bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter valued at $1,022,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $90.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.93, a PEG ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 1.19. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $297.44 and a 200 day moving average price of $290.12.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.22. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 30.24% and a return on equity of 36.58%. The company had revenue of $1.98 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.97 billion. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.76 EPS for the current year.

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.