Sanford C. Bernstein Increases Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Price Target to $364.00

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its target price hoisted by Sanford C. Bernstein from $335.00 to $364.00 in a research report report published on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. Sanford C. Bernstein currently has an outperform rating on the network technology company’s stock.

PANW has been the topic of several other research reports. Redburn Atlantic raised their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $275.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Susquehanna decreased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $400.00 to $325.00 and set a positive rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Capital One Financial cut Palo Alto Networks from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and set a $302.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Mizuho decreased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $405.00 to $350.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an overweight rating and set a $350.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $321.39.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 3.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW opened at $321.60 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $104.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.74, a PEG ratio of 5.04 and a beta of 1.18. Palo Alto Networks has a 12 month low of $201.17 and a 12 month high of $380.84. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $290.37 and a 200 day moving average price of $299.74.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $1.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.07. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The business had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.97 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.38 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 2.79 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 121,276 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $299.60, for a total value of $36,334,289.60. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 166,542 shares in the company, valued at $49,895,983.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 121,276 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $299.60, for a total transaction of $36,334,289.60. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 166,542 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,895,983.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.24, for a total transaction of $10,376,640.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 1,295,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $373,434,232.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 278,326 shares of company stock worth $80,147,130 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 3.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,572,098 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $8,118,190,000 after acquiring an additional 1,002,239 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,563,020,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 2.6% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,430,299 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $804,199,000 after purchasing an additional 86,995 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 3,136,547 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $924,905,000 after purchasing an additional 30,013 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 7.6% in the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,814,881 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $799,792,000 after buying an additional 198,078 shares during the period. 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.