Wells Fargo & Company Boosts Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Price Target to $235.00

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its price target increased by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $225.00 to $235.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “overweight” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price target points to a potential upside of 26.25% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. TD Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $230.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $223.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Monday. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Roth Capital assumed coverage on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, May 15th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $210.00 price objective for the company. Finally, HSBC upgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $156.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $206.40.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 2.7%

PANW stock opened at $186.14 on Wednesday. Palo Alto Networks has a twelve month low of $142.01 and a twelve month high of $208.39. The company has a market capitalization of $123.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 104.87, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.02. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $178.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $185.33.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.03. The firm 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 firm’s revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.66 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 100,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,543,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $586,132,981.56. The trade was a 2.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 227,414 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 317,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $54,854,038.83. The trade was a 41.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 568,962 shares of company stock worth $96,933,690 over the last ninety days. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Uniting Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $548,000. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 106.4% in the 4th quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 2,378 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $433,000 after purchasing an additional 1,226 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 94.3% in the 4th quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 11,661 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,122,000 after purchasing an additional 5,658 shares in the last quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 108.1% in the 4th quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC now owns 21,354 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,886,000 after purchasing an additional 11,095 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 82.1% in the 4th quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,345,740 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $244,871,000 after purchasing an additional 606,778 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is 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.