Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Price Target Raised to $225.00 at Scotiabank

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its target price hoisted by research analysts at Scotiabank from $200.00 to $225.00 in a research report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “sector outperform” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Scotiabank’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 22.60% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research analysts have also commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $212.50 to $217.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $223.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. OTR Global reissued a “negative” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 7th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Hsbc Global Res lowered Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Three investment 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 given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.85.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

Shares of PANW stock traded up $6.41 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $183.52. 4,036,576 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,268,968. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $189.18 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $178.72. Palo Alto Networks has a one year low of $130.04 and a one year high of $207.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $120.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.77, a P/E/G ratio of 5.07 and a beta of 1.14.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.12 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.32 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks will post 1.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 336,000 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,643,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $705,730,831.62. This represents a 8.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 235,492 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.32, for a total value of $43,170,393.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,086,404 shares in the company, valued at $199,159,581.28. The trade was a 17.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 867,734 shares of company stock worth $161,546,523. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PANW. Mainstream Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the third quarter valued at about $1,156,000. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC increased its position 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 valued at $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 in the third quarter valued at $24,414,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its position in Palo Alto Networks by 3.8% in 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 increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 50.1% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,147,215 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,075,718,000 after buying an additional 1,050,173 shares during the period. 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.