Piper Sandler Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its target price upped by research analysts at Piper Sandler from $330.00 to $385.00 in a report released on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has a “neutral” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price target indicates a potential upside of 0.43% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on the company. KeyCorp upped their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $400.00 to $435.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $387.00 to $449.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $410.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $410.00 target price for the company. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $440.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, thirty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $402.03.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Down 3.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $383.36 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $124.82 billion, a PE ratio of 52.88, a PEG ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 1.12. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $364.32 and its 200-day moving average price is $339.39. Palo Alto Networks has a twelve month low of $260.09 and a twelve month high of $408.53.

Palo Alto Networks’s stock is set to split on Monday, December 16th. The 2-1 split was announced on Wednesday, November 20th. The newly created shares will be distributed to shareholders after the closing bell on Friday, December 13th.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.12 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 32.11%. The business’s revenue was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.63 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $367.99, for a total transaction of $30,022,832.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 618,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $227,680,932.85. This trade represents a 11.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $348.49, for a total value of $3,484,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 31,517 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,983,359.33. This represents a 24.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 254,252 shares of company stock worth $89,041,637. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 10.7% in the third quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 2,606 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $891,000 after acquiring an additional 252 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 8.6% in the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 64,737 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $22,127,000 after purchasing an additional 5,133 shares in the last quarter. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 3rd quarter valued at about $5,827,000. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 8.1% during the 3rd quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 1,152 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $394,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Virtue Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 4.3% in the third quarter. Virtue Capital Management LLC now owns 1,690 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $578,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. 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.