Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Upgraded at Rosenblatt Securities

Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has $430.00 target price on the network technology company’s stock, up from their previous target price of $390.00.

PANW has been the subject of a number of other research reports. BTIG Research increased their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $366.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $410.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $340.00 to $420.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Two investment analysts have 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, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $401.78.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PANW opened at $385.04 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $125.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.82, a P/E/G ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 1.12. Palo Alto Networks has a 1-year low of $260.09 and a 1-year high of $408.53. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $363.59 and a 200 day moving average price of $338.82.

Palo Alto Networks’s stock is set to split on Monday, December 16th. The 2-1 split was announced on Wednesday, November 20th. The newly issued shares will be issued to shareholders after the closing bell on Friday, December 13th.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 quarterly revenue was up 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.63 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $367.99, for a total value 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 approximately $227,680,932.85. The trade was a 11.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.50, for a total transaction of $11,970,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 1,115,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $370,926,027.50. This trade represents a 3.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 254,252 shares of company stock worth $89,041,637 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Palo Alto Networks

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 113.9% in the third quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 77 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the third quarter worth $29,000. Sound Income Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 352.6% in the third quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 86 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the period. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL boosted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 177.4% in the third quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL now owns 86 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the period. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new position in Palo Alto Networks in the first quarter worth $25,000. 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.