Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Stock Rating Upgraded by StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning.

PANW has been the subject of a number of other reports. DA Davidson increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $207.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $182.00 to $199.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $217.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $205.00 to $212.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, thirty-two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $201.03.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 6.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ PANW opened at $188.76 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $61.93 billion, a PE ratio of 24.58, a PEG ratio of 5.75 and a beta of 1.12. Palo Alto Networks has a 1-year low of $130.04 and a 1-year high of $207.24. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $191.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $175.21.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 163,172 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.00, for a total value of $30,022,832.14. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,237,430 shares in the company, valued at $227,680,932.85. This trade represents a 11.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 72,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.25, for a total transaction of $11,970,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 2,231,134 shares in the company, valued at $370,926,027.50. This represents a 3.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 571,172 shares of company stock worth $107,074,352. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Mainstream Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter worth $1,156,000. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 16.4% during the third quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC now owns 231,566 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $79,149,000 after purchasing an additional 32,626 shares during the period. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter worth $24,414,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.8% during the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 196,700 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $67,232,000 after purchasing an additional 7,291 shares during the period. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 50.1% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,147,215 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,075,718,000 after purchasing an additional 1,050,173 shares during the period. 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.