Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the forty-two analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, thirty have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $326.29.

A number of brokerages have issued reports on PANW. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $330.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $365.00 to $360.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 21st. Daiwa America raised shares of Palo Alto Networks to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 29th. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $355.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 16th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $335.00 to $364.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 21st.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,475 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $339.12, for a total value of $500,202.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 19,026 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,452,097.12. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $338.00, for a total transaction of $67,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 24,982 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,443,916. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,475 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $339.12, for a total transaction of $500,202.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 19,026 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,452,097.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 302,525 shares of company stock valued at $93,982,207 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,563,020,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 29,086.9% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,057,968 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $606,854,000 after purchasing an additional 2,050,917 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 83.1% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,616,803 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $771,643,000 after purchasing an additional 1,187,915 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 4.0% in the fourth 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. Finally, Axiom Investors LLC DE boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 359.3% in the fourth 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. Institutional investors own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 1.3 %

Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $337.64 on Thursday. Palo Alto Networks has a 12 month low of $201.17 and a 12 month high of $380.84. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $313.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $308.65. The company has a market cap of $109.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.08, a PEG ratio of 5.24 and a beta of 1.14.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its earnings results on Monday, May 20th. The network technology company reported $1.32 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm posted $0.38 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 2.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.