Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Earns “Hold” Rating from Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft

Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated their hold rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) in a report issued on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have a $190.00 price objective on the network technology company’s stock, down from their prior price objective of $207.00.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on PANW. Hsbc Global Res cut shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. HSBC downgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $152.00 to $145.50 in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Palo Alto Networks from $212.50 to $217.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, BNP Paribas assumed coverage on Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $205.00 price target for the company. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.29.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of PANW opened at $173.42 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $191.19 and its two-hundred day moving average is $178.33. Palo Alto Networks has a twelve month low of $130.04 and a twelve month high of $207.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $113.80 billion, a PE ratio of 22.58, a P/E/G ratio of 5.75 and a beta of 1.14.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.12 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 23.36% and a net margin of 32.99%. Palo Alto Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.32 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.49 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 120,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $179.70, for a total value of $21,564,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 365,856 shares in the company, valued at approximately $65,744,323.20. This represents a 24.70 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 176,242 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.04, for a total value of $31,730,609.68. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,086,404 shares in the company, valued at approximately $195,596,176.16. This represents a 13.96 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 867,734 shares of company stock valued at $161,546,523. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PANW. Mainstream Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,156,000. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 16.4% in 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 last quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $24,414,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 196,700 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $67,232,000 after purchasing an additional 7,291 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 50.1% during 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 last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.