Barclays Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock Price

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its price target reduced by investment analysts at Barclays from $213.00 to $210.00 in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Barclays‘s target price indicates a potential upside of 12.82% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $229.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group increased their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday, February 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $206.40.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 2.7%

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $186.14 on Wednesday. Palo Alto Networks has a 1-year low of $142.01 and a 1-year high of $208.39. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $178.03 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $185.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $123.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 104.87, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.02.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.03. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 21.93% and a net margin of 14.64%. The company had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.66 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.41, for a total transaction of $16,541,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,543,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $586,132,981.56. The trade was a 2.74% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 227,414 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.73, for a total value of $39,281,220.22. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 317,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $54,854,038.83. This represents a 41.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 568,962 shares of company stock valued at $96,933,690 over the last three months. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Grassi Investment Management boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 161.1% during the 4th quarter. Grassi Investment Management now owns 7,910 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,439,000 after acquiring an additional 4,880 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 100.0% in the 4th quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 1,258 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $229,000 after buying an additional 629 shares in the last quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter valued at $234,000. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 104.7% in the 4th quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 5,866 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,067,000 after buying an additional 3,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Koshinski Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 87.2% in the 4th quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,726 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,406,000 after buying an additional 3,598 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.