TD Securities Reaffirms Buy Rating for Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by equities research analysts at TD Securities in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $230.00 price objective on the network technology company’s stock. TD Securities’ price objective points to a potential upside of 23.56% from the company’s current price.

PANW has been the topic of a number of other reports. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Roth Capital initiated coverage on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $210.00 price target on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $235.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $205.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target 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. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $206.40.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

NASDAQ PANW opened at $186.14 on Wednesday. Palo Alto Networks has a 12 month low of $142.01 and a 12 month high of $208.39. The company has a market capitalization of $123.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 104.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.02. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $178.03 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $185.33.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.03. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 14.64% and a return on equity of 21.93%. The firm had revenue of $2.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.66 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,774 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.27, for a total transaction of $22,858,894.98. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 293,010 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $55,458,002.70. This trade represents a 29.19% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.41, for a total transaction of $16,541,000.00. Following 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 568,962 shares of company stock valued at $96,933,690. Company insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 104.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 61,233,907 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $11,142,122,000 after purchasing an additional 31,281,359 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 87.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 6,725,148 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 4th quarter worth approximately $970,736,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter worth approximately $810,047,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 133.7% in 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 purchasing an additional 4,486,654 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

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.