Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Earns Outperform Rating from Oppenheimer

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by Oppenheimer in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $450.00 price target on the network technology company’s stock. Oppenheimer’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 15.17% from the company’s previous close.

PANW has been the subject of several other reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $440.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. OTR Global reiterated a “negative” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Thursday, November 7th. BNP Paribas began coverage on Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $410.00 price target for the company. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $390.00 to $421.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, JMP Securities raised their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Palo Alto Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $403.59.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW traded down $2.18 during trading on Thursday, hitting $390.71. 2,360,836 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,837,163. The company has a market cap of $127.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 1.12. Palo Alto Networks has a 52 week low of $260.09 and a 52 week high of $408.53. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $362.55 and a 200-day moving average price of $338.41.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.08. Palo Alto Networks had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 32.11%. The firm had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.12 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.63 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $367.99, for a total transaction of $30,022,832.14. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 618,715 shares in the company, valued at $227,680,932.85. The trade was a 11.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.50, for a total value of $11,970,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 1,115,567 shares of the company’s stock, 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 ninety days, insiders have sold 254,252 shares of company stock valued at $89,041,637. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. Tradewinds LLC. lifted its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Tradewinds LLC. now owns 2,315 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $791,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 920 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $312,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. FLC Capital Advisors increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. FLC Capital Advisors now owns 4,035 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,379,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Cromwell Holdings LLC boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.0% in the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,044 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $357,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Finally, Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton increased its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 9.4% during the third quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 348 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $119,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

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.