Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Given New $432.00 Price Target at Citigroup

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its price objective boosted by Citigroup from $395.00 to $432.00 in a research note released on Thursday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the network technology company’s stock.

PANW has been the topic of several other research reports. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Palo Alto Networks to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $370.00 price objective (up previously from $350.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $440.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $410.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $402.03.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $383.36 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $364.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $339.63. The company has a market capitalization of $124.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.92, a P/E/G ratio of 5.76 and a beta of 1.12. Palo Alto Networks has a 1 year low of $260.09 and a 1 year high of $408.53.

Palo Alto Networks shares are going to split on Monday, December 16th. The 2-1 split was announced on Wednesday, November 20th. The newly created shares will be payable to shareholders after the closing bell on Friday, December 13th.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.08. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 23.36% and a net margin of 32.99%. The business had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.12 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.63 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $367.99, for a total value of $30,022,832.14. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 618,715 shares in the company, valued at approximately $227,680,932.85. This trade represents a 11.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $348.49, for a total transaction of $3,484,900.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 31,517 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,983,359.33. This represents a 24.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 254,252 shares of company stock valued at $89,041,637 in the last quarter. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new stake in Palo Alto Networks in the first quarter valued at $536,000. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,788 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,929,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the period. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 11.0% in the 1st quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 7,468 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,122,000 after purchasing an additional 738 shares during the last quarter. Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 37.2% during the 1st quarter. Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC now owns 977 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $278,000 after purchasing an additional 265 shares during the period. Finally, Beck Capital Management LLC grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 25.6% in the 1st quarter. Beck Capital Management LLC now owns 16,142 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,586,000 after purchasing an additional 3,289 shares during the last quarter. 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.