Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Price Target Raised to $385.00

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its price objective hoisted by research analysts at Scotiabank from $337.00 to $385.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “sector outperform” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Scotiabank’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 13.49% from the company’s current price.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $327.00 to $334.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 21st. Evercore ISI cut their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $405.00 to $385.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 14th. Barclays boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $300.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Redburn Atlantic downgraded Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $350.00 to $325.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $329.68.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Palo Alto Networks stock traded up $6.01 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $339.24. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 760,318 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,359,503. Palo Alto Networks has a fifty-two week low of $201.17 and a fifty-two week high of $380.84. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $323.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $310.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $109.85 billion, a PE ratio of 49.31, a P/E/G ratio of 3.98 and a beta of 1.14.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $1.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $1.98 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.97 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 31.42%. The business’s revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.38 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks will post 2.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.31, for a total transaction of $10,559,160.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 1,259,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $369,443,596.77. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.31, for a total transaction of $10,559,160.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 1,259,567 shares in the company, valued at approximately $369,443,596.77. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $338.00, for a total value of $67,600.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 24,982 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,443,916. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 367,315 shares of company stock valued at $118,696,590 in the last three months. Insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PANW. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,563,020,000. Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 83.1% in the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,616,803 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $771,643,000 after buying an additional 1,187,915 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,569,859 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $8,129,800,000 after purchasing an additional 1,058,127 shares during the last quarter. Axiom Investors LLC DE boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 359.3% in the 4th quarter. Axiom Investors LLC DE now owns 957,699 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $282,406,000 after purchasing an additional 749,199 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 1st quarter worth $177,933,000. Institutional investors 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.