Loop Capital Has Lowered Expectations for Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock Price

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its price target trimmed by Loop Capital from $385.00 to $180.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a hold rating on the network technology company’s stock.

PANW has been the subject of several other reports. OTR Global restated a “negative” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Guggenheim cut Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, January 6th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $212.50 to $217.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.04.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW opened at $170.58 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $111.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.75 and a beta of 1.14. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $190.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $178.55. Palo Alto Networks has a 12 month low of $130.04 and a 12 month high of $207.24.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.04. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 23.36% and a net margin of 32.99%. The company had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.12 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.32 earnings per share. Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In other news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $179.70, for a total transaction of $21,564,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 365,856 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $65,744,323.20. This trade represents a 24.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 336,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $193.70, for a total transaction of $65,081,520.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 3,643,516 shares in the company, valued at $705,730,831.62. This trade represents a 8.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 867,734 shares of company stock worth $161,546,523 in the last 90 days. 2.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 113.9% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 77 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Abound Wealth Management increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 97.3% during the fourth quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 146 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 352.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 86 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 177.4% in the 3rd quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL now owns 86 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. 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.