Brokerages Set Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) PT at $366.08

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the forty-two analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twenty-nine have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $366.08.

A number of research analysts have recently commented on PANW shares. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $345.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $390.00 to $410.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $360.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Northland Securities raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $275.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $360.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 66,666 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $342.98, for a total transaction of $22,865,104.68. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 639,994 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $219,505,142.12. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, President William D. Jenkins, Jr. sold 1,475 shares of the business’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 value of $500,202.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 19,026 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,452,097.12. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 66,666 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $342.98, for a total transaction of $22,865,104.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 639,994 shares in the company, valued at approximately $219,505,142.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 464,075 shares of company stock valued at $154,029,567 in the last ninety days. 3.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of PANW. Sunbelt Securities Inc. lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 91.0% during the 1st quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 1,683 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $478,000 after acquiring an additional 802 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 7.6% during the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,814,881 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $799,792,000 after acquiring an additional 198,078 shares during the period. Brookstone Capital Management lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 48.4% during the 1st quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 26,404 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $7,502,000 after acquiring an additional 8,611 shares during the period. Wealthspire Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 1.7% during the first quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC now owns 4,377 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,244,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Connectus Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 22.8% during the fourth quarter. Connectus Wealth LLC now owns 43,813 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $12,920,000 after buying an additional 8,132 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Up 2.0 %

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $340.12 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $110.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.44, a P/E/G ratio of 5.04 and a beta of 1.13. Palo Alto Networks has a 12-month low of $224.64 and a 12-month high of $380.84. The business’s 50 day moving average is $336.39 and its 200-day moving average is $313.33.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 19th. The network technology company reported $1.51 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.10. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.11% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company had revenue of $2.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.16 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.80 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.55 EPS for the current 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.