Cantor Fitzgerald Reiterates Overweight Rating for Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reissued by Cantor Fitzgerald in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $445.00 target price on the network technology company’s stock. Cantor Fitzgerald’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 13.26% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $400.00 to $435.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. JMP Securities raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Friday, August 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $402.56.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of PANW opened at $392.89 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $362.55 and a two-hundred day moving average of $338.41. The stock has a market cap of $127.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.19, a PEG ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 1.12. Palo Alto Networks has a 12-month low of $258.17 and a 12-month high of $408.53.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.12 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.11% and a return on equity of 26.83%. Palo Alto Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.63 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.98, for a total value of $20,698,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 159,009 shares in the company, valued at $54,854,924.82. This trade represents a 27.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 10,000 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 31,517 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,983,359.33. This trade represents a 24.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 254,252 shares of company stock worth $89,041,637 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PANW. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 113.9% during the 3rd quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 77 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. Sound Income Strategies LLC increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 352.6% during 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 period. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL increased its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 177.4% during 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 period. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 3rd quarter worth about $29,000. 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.