Palo Alto Networks’ (PANW) “Overweight” Rating Reiterated at Cantor Fitzgerald

Cantor Fitzgerald reissued their overweight rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) in a research note published on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $223.00 target price on the network technology company’s stock.

PANW has been the topic of a number of other reports. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $210.00 to $217.50 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “hold” rating and set a $190.00 price target (down from $207.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $195.00 to $212.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $192.50 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $201.77.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

PANW stock opened at $196.73 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $186.89 and its 200-day moving average price is $181.17. The company has a market cap of $129.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.36 and a beta of 1.14. Palo Alto Networks has a 1 year low of $130.04 and a 1 year high of $207.24.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.99% and a return on equity of 23.36%. The business had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.12 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.32 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 235,492 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.32, for a total transaction of $43,170,393.44. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,086,404 shares in the company, valued at approximately $199,159,581.28. The trade was a 17.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 336,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $193.70, for a total transaction of $65,081,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,643,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $705,730,831.62. The trade was a 8.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,458,864 shares of company stock worth $269,397,331 in the last 90 days. 2.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 94.3% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,121,531 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $204,074,000 after buying an additional 544,336 shares during the last quarter. Perennial Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Palo Alto Networks by 104.6% during the 4th quarter. Perennial Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,224 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,860,000 after buying an additional 5,226 shares during the last quarter. Sit Investment Associates Inc. lifted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 92.7% during the 4th quarter. Sit Investment Associates Inc. now owns 68,380 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $12,442,000 after acquiring an additional 32,886 shares during the period. Aviva PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 115.5% in the 4th quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 392,270 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $71,377,000 after acquiring an additional 210,200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd increased its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 116.5% in the fourth quarter. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd now owns 5,589 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,017,000 after acquiring an additional 3,007 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.