Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Shares Down 0.8% – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) fell 0.8% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $187.63 and last traded at $188.08. 435,352 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 94% from the average session volume of 7,498,415 shares. The stock had previously closed at $189.51.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PANW has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $225.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. OTR Global reiterated a “negative” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $208.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $190.00 to $207.50 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Palo Alto Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $201.40.

Palo Alto Networks Price Performance

The business’s 50 day moving average is $192.01 and its 200 day moving average is $176.94. The stock has a market cap of $122.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.24, a P/E/G ratio of 5.75 and a beta of 1.12.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.04. The company 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%. The firm’s revenue was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.32 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 3.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Nikesh Arora sold 163,172 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.00, for a total value of $30,022,832.14. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,237,430 shares in the company, valued at $227,680,932.85. This represents 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 through the SEC website. Also, EVP Nir Zuk sold 336,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.70, for a total value of $65,081,520.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 3,643,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $705,730,831.62. This represents a 8.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 571,172 shares of company stock valued at $107,074,352. 2.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PANW. KCM Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Palo Alto Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at $200,000. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH boosted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 110.3% in the 2nd quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 2,097 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $711,000 after purchasing an additional 1,100 shares during the period. Hantz Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the second quarter worth $6,544,000. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co grew its position in Palo Alto Networks by 10.2% during the second quarter. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co now owns 980 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $332,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TrinityPoint Wealth LLC increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC now owns 10,117 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,430,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.