Cantor Fitzgerald Reiterates Overweight Rating for Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating restated by research analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald in a report released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $350.00 price target on the network technology company’s stock. Cantor Fitzgerald’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 24.49% from the company’s previous close.

PANW has been the subject of several other research reports. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $330.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks to $420.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Redburn Atlantic lifted their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $275.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $380.00 price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $390.00 to $380.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $314.82.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Performance

PANW opened at $281.14 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $90.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.93, a PEG ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a fifty day moving average of $297.44 and a 200 day moving average of $290.12. Palo Alto Networks has a fifty-two week low of $176.30 and a fifty-two week high of $380.84.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The network technology company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.22. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 30.24% and a return on equity of 36.58%. The business had revenue of $1.98 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.97 billion. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 2.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Palo Alto Networks news, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,050 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total transaction of $294,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,629,160. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Palo Alto Networks news, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.04, for a total transaction of $16,082,400.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 174,075 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,659,063. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Josh D. Paul sold 1,050 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total transaction of $294,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,247 shares in the company, valued at $7,629,160. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 167,917 shares of company stock valued at $49,395,553. Corporate insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palo Alto Networks

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter valued at about $751,276,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 29,086.9% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,057,968 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $606,854,000 after buying an additional 2,050,917 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the fourth quarter valued at about $204,728,000. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 83.1% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,616,803 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $771,643,000 after purchasing an additional 1,187,915 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Palo Alto Networks by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,569,859 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $8,129,800,000 after purchasing an additional 1,058,127 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is 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.