Northland Securities Reaffirms “Market Perform” Rating for Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)‘s stock had its “market perform” rating restated by investment analysts at Northland Securities in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $370.00 price target on the network technology company’s stock, up from their prior price target of $350.00. Northland Securities’ target price would suggest a potential downside of 3.48% from the company’s previous close.

PANW has been the subject of a number of other research reports. BNP Paribas began coverage on Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $410.00 price target for the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $330.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $387.00 to $449.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $385.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, thirty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $402.03.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 3.6 %

Shares of Palo Alto Networks stock opened at $383.36 on Thursday. Palo Alto Networks has a 52 week low of $260.09 and a 52 week high of $408.53. The stock has a market cap of $124.82 billion, a PE ratio of 52.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 1.12. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $364.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $339.39.

Shares of Palo Alto Networks are scheduled to split before the market opens on Monday, December 16th. The 2-1 split was announced on Wednesday, November 20th. The newly issued shares will be distributed to shareholders after the market closes on Friday, December 13th.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.11% and a return on equity of 26.83%. 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 previous year, the business posted $0.63 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Palo Alto Networks

In related news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 81,586 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $367.99, for a total transaction of $30,022,832.14. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $348.49, for a total value of $3,484,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 31,517 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,983,359.33. This represents a 24.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 254,252 shares of company stock worth $89,041,637 over the last three months. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of PANW. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the 1st quarter valued at about $536,000. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,788 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,929,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the period. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 11.0% in the 1st quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 7,468 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,122,000 after buying an additional 738 shares in the last quarter. Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 37.2% during the 1st quarter. Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC now owns 977 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $278,000 after buying an additional 265 shares during the period. Finally, Beck Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 25.6% in the 1st quarter. Beck Capital Management LLC now owns 16,142 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $4,586,000 after buying an additional 3,289 shares in the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.