Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Shares Up 1.6% After Analyst Upgrade

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)’s share price shot up 1.6% on Thursday after Oppenheimer raised their price target on the stock from $305.00 to $330.00. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Palo Alto Networks traded as high as $283.15 and last traded at $281.85. 837,148 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 85% from the average session volume of 5,554,390 shares. The stock had previously closed at $277.33.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on PANW. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $400.00 to $345.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Redburn Atlantic lifted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $275.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $380.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $274.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Loop Capital lowered shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $300.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $314.82.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.03, for a total value of $15,436,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 198,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $67,955,958.15. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.03, for a total value of $15,436,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 198,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $67,955,958.15. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.13, for a total value of $523,002.71. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 25,812 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,230,715.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 167,917 shares of company stock valued at $49,395,553 over the last three months. Insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PANW. RB Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 19.9% during the 1st quarter. RB Capital Management LLC now owns 602 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $375,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Morgens Waterfall Vintiadis & Co. Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter worth about $6,910,000. United Bank raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 11.7% during the 1st quarter. United Bank now owns 2,822 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,757,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 13.6% during the 1st quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 1,547 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $963,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prudential PLC purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter worth about $1,022,000. 79.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $299.16 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $290.18. The company has a market capitalization of $91.25 billion, a PE ratio of 44.04, a P/E/G ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 1.19.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.97 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 36.58% and a net margin of 30.24%. Sell-side analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.76 earnings per share for the current year.

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.