Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Earns Overweight Rating from KeyCorp

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at KeyCorp in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $220.00 target price on the network technology company’s stock. KeyCorp’s target price indicates a potential upside of 18.19% from the company’s previous close.

PANW has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Stephens cut shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Susquehanna increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $217.50 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $235.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $206.40.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 2.7%

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $186.14 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $123.24 billion, a PE ratio of 104.87, a P/E/G ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.02. Palo Alto Networks has a twelve month low of $142.01 and a twelve month high of $208.39. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $178.03 and its 200 day moving average price is $185.33.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.28 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 14.64% and a return on equity of 21.93%. The business’s revenue was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.66 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of Palo Alto Networks 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 321,774 shares in the company, valued at $48,629,704.62. This trade represents a 27.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 227,414 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.73, for a total transaction of $39,281,220.22. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 317,571 shares in the company, 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. In the last three months, insiders sold 568,962 shares of company stock valued at $96,933,690. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,775,544 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $10,712,019,000 after acquiring an additional 1,541,637 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 87.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,382,116 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,611,013,000 after acquiring an additional 6,725,148 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 83.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,427,062 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,533,419,000 after acquiring an additional 3,841,359 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 133.7% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,842,647 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,427,048,000 after acquiring an additional 4,486,654 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 17.6% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,277,739 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,324,387,000 after acquiring an additional 1,088,631 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

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.