Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.07 EPS

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) announced its earnings results on Monday. The network technology company reported $1.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.07, Briefing.com reports. 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 analyst estimates of $1.97 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.38 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Palo Alto Networks updated its Q4 guidance to $1.40-1.42 EPS.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW opened at $308.58 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $99.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.85, a P/E/G ratio of 5.03 and a beta of 1.18. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $289.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $299.07. Palo Alto Networks has a 1-year low of $188.83 and a 1-year high of $380.84.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,050 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total transaction of $294,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 27,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,629,160. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,050 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total transaction of $294,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 27,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,629,160. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,867 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.13, for a total transaction of $523,002.71. Following the transaction, the president now owns 25,812 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,230,715.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 280,193 shares of company stock worth $80,670,132 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PANW has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $335.00 to $364.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $335.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $360.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $327.00 to $334.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $317.45.

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.